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HOME  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 
OF  MODERN  KNOWLEDGE 

No.  91 


Editors : 

HERBERT  FISHER,  M.A.,  F.B.A. 

Prop.  GILBERT  MURRAY,  Litt.D., 
LL.D.,  F.B.A. 

Prof.  J.  ARTHUR  THOMSON,  M.A. 
Prof.  WILLIAM  T.  BREWSTER,  M.A. 


A complete  classified  list  of  the  volumes  of  The 
Home  University  Library  already  published 
will  be  found  at  the  back  of  this  book. 


THE  N 


) 


~n  ■>  3 


BY 


W.  E.  BURGHARDT  Du  BOIS,  Ph:IX“ 


Felloixi  of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement 
of  Science,  Editor  of  The  Crisis 


author  or 

“the  SUPPRESSION  OF  THE  SLAVE  TRADE,”  “the  PHILADEL- 
PHIA NEGRO,”  “the  SOULS  OF  BLACK  FOLK,”  “jOHN 
BROWN,”  “THE  QUEST  OF  THE  SILVER 
FLEECE;”  EDITOR  OF  THE  “ATLANTA 
UNIVERSITY  STUDIES,” 

I898-I9I4 


NEW  YORK 

HENRY  HOLT  AND  COMPANY 

LONDON 

WILLIAMS  AND  NORGATE 


Copyright,  1915, 

BY 

HENRY  HOLT  AND  COMPANY 


TO 

A FAITHFUL  HELPER 
M.  G.  A. 


/ 


PREFACE 


The  time  has  not  yet  come  for  a complete  his- 
tory of  the  Negro  peoples.  Archaeological  research 
in  Africa  has  just  begun,  and  many  sources  of 
information  in  Arabian,  Portuguese,  and  other 
tongues  are  not  fully  at  our  command  ; and,  too,  it 
must  frankly  be  confessed,  racial  prejudice  against 
darker  peoples  is  still  too  strong  in  so-called  civil- 
ized centers  for  judicial  appraisement  of  the  peoples 
of  Africa.  Much  intensive  monographic  work  in 
history  and  science  is  needed  to  clear  mooted  points 
and  quiet  the  controversialist  who  mistakes  present 
personal  desire  for  scientific  proof. 

Nevertheless,  I have  not  been  able  to  withstand 
the  temptation  to  essay  such  short  general  state- 
ment of  the  main  known  facts  and  their  fair 
interpretation  as  shall  enable  the  general  reader 
to  know  as  men  a sixth  or  more  of  the  human 
race.  Manifestly  so  short  a story  must  be  mainly 
conclusions  and  generalizations  with  but  meager 
indication  of  authorities  and  underlying  argu- 
ments. Possibly,  if  the  Public  will,  a later  and 
larger  book  may  be  more  satisfactory  on  these 
points. 

W.  E.  BURGHARDT  Du  BOIS. 


New  York  City,  Feb.  1,  1915. 


CONTENTS 

CHAP.  PAGE 

Preface vi 

I Africa 9 

II  The  Coming  of  Black  Men 20 

III  Ethiopia  and  Egypt 30 

IV  The  Niger  and  Islam 47 

V  Guinea  and  Congo 62 

VI  The  Great  Lakes  and  Zymhabwe 79 

VII  The  War  of  Races  at  Land’s  End  ....  91 

VIII  African  Culture 103 

IX  The  Trade  in  Men 143 

X The  West  Indies  and  Latin  America  . . . 160 

XI  The  Negro  in  the  United  States  ....  183 

XII  The  Negro  Problems 232 

Suggestions  for  Further  Reading 244 

Index 253 

MAPS 

The  Physical  Geography  of  Africa 8 

Ancient  Kingdoms  of  Africa 102 

Races  in  Africa 103 

Distribution  of  Negro  Blood,  Ancient  and  Modern  243 


The  Physical  Geography  of  Africa 


THE  NEGRO 


CHAPTER  I 

AFRICA 

“Behold! 

The  Sphinx  is  Africa.  The  bond 

Of  Silence  is  upon  her.  Old 

And  white  with  tombs,  and  rent  and  shorn; 

With  raiment  wet  with  tears  and  torn. 

And  trampled  on,  yet  all  untamed.” 

Miller 

Africa  is  at  once  the  most  romantic  and  the 
most  tragic  of  continents.  Its  very  names 
reveal  its  mystery  and  wide-reaching  influence. 
It  is  the  “Ethiopia”  of  the  Greek,  the  “Kush” 
and  “Punt”  of  the  Egyptian,  and  the  Arabian 
“Land  of  the  Blacks.”  To  modem  Europe  it 
is  the  “Dark  Continent”  and  “Land  of  Con- 
trasts”; in  literature  it  is  the  seat  of  the  Sphinx 
and  the  lotus  eaters,  the  home  of  the  dwarfs, 
gnomes,  and  pixies,  and  the  refuge  of  the  gods; 
in  commerce  it  is  the  slave  mart  and  the  source 
of  ivory,  ebony,  rubber,  gold,  and  diamonds. 
What  other  continent  can  rival  in  interest  this 
Ancient  of  Days? 

There  are  those,  nevertheless,  who  would  write 
universal  history  and  leave  out  Africa.  But  how, 
asks  Ratzel,  can  one  leave  out  the  land  of  Egypt 
9 


10 


THE  NEGRO 


and  Carthage?  and  Frobenius  declares  that  in 
future  Africa  must  more  and  more  be  regarded  as 
an  integral  part  of  the  great  movement  of  world 
history.  Yet  it  is  true  that  the  history  of  Africa 
is  unusual,  and  its  strangeness  is  due  in  no  small 
degree  to  the  physical  peculiarities  of  the  con- 
tinent. With  three  times  the  area  of  Europe 
it  has  a coast  line  a fifth  shorter.  Like  Europe 
it  is  a peninsula  of  Asia,  curving  southwestward 
around  the  Indian  Sea.  It  has  few  gulfs,  bays, 
capes,  or  islands.  Even  the  rivers,  though  large 
and  long,  are  not  means  of  communication  with 
the  outer  world,  because  from  the  central  high 
plateau  they  plunge  in  rapids  and  cataracts  to 
the  narrow  coastlands  and  the  sea. 

The  general  physical  contour  of  Africa  has 
been  likened  to  an  inverted  plate  with  one  or  more 
rows  of  mountains  at  the  edge  and  a low  coastal 
belt.  In  the  south  the  central  plateau  is  three 
thousand  or  more  feet  above  the  sea,  while  in  the 
north  it  is  a little  over  one  thousand  feet.  Thus 
two  main  divisions  of  the  continent  are  easily 
distinguished : the  broad  northern  rectangle, 

reaching  down  as  far  as  the  Gulf  of  Guinea  and 
Cape  Guardafui,  with  seven  million  square  miles; 
and  the  peninsula  which  tapers  toward  the  south, 
with  five  million  square  miles. 

Four  great  rivers  and  many  lesser  streams  water 
the  continent.  The  greatest  is  the  Congo  in  the 
center,  with  its  vast  curving  and  endless  estuaries; 
then  the  Nile,  draining  the  cluster  of  the  Great 
Lakes  and  flowing  northward  “like  some  grave, 


AFRICA 


11 


mighty  thought,  threading  a dream”;  the  Niger 
in  the  northwest,  watering  the  Sudan  below  the 
Sahara;  and,  finally,  the  Zambesi,  with  its  greater 
Niagara  in  the  southeast.  Even  these  waters 
leave  room  for  deserts  both  south  and  north,  but 
the  greater  ones  are  the  three  million  square 
miles  of  sand  wastes  in  the  north. 

More  than  any  other  land,  Africa  lies  in  the 
tropics,  ■with  a warm,  dry  climate,  save  in  the 
central  Congo  region,  where  rain  at  all  seasons 
brings  tropical  luxuriance.  The  flora  is  rich  but 
not  wide  in  variety,  including  the  gum  acacia, 
ebony,  several  dye  woods,  the  kola  nut,  and  prob- 
ably tobacco  and  millet.  To  these  many  plants 
have  been  added  in  historic  times.  The  fauna  is 
rich  in  mammals,  and  here,  too,  many  from  other 
continents  have  been  widely  introduced  and 
used. 

Primarily  Africa  is  the  Land  of  the  Blacks. 
The  world  has  always  been  familiar  with  black 
men,  who  represent  one  of  the  most  ancient  of 
human  stocks.  Of  the  ancient  world  gathered 
about  the  Mediterranean,  they  formed  a part  and 
were  viewed  with  no  surprise  or  dislike,  because 
this  world  saw  them  come  and  go  and  play  their 
part  with  other  men.  Was  Clitus  the  brother- 
in-law  of  Alexander  the  Great  less  to  be  honored 
because  he  happened  to  be  black?  Was  Terence 
less  famous?  The  medieval  European  world, 
developing  under  the  favorable  physical  condi- 
tions of  the  north  temperate  zone,  knew  the  black 
man  chiefly  as  a legend  or  occasional  curiosity. 


12 


THE  NEGRO 


but  still  as  a fellow  man  — an  Othello  or  a Prester 
John  or  an  Antar. 

The  modern  world,  in  contrast,  knows  the 
Negro  chiefly  as  a bond  slave  in  the  West  Indies 
and  America.  Add  to  this  the  fact  that  the 
darker  races  in  other  parts  of  the  world  have,  in 
the  last  four  centuries,  lagged  behind  the  flying 
and  even  feverish  footsteps  of  Europe,  and  we 
face  to-day  a widespread  assumption  through- 
out the  dominant  world  that  color  is  a mark  of 
inferiority. 

The  result  is  that  in  writing  of  this,  one  of  the 
most  ancient,  persistent,  and  widespread  stocks  of 
mankind,  one  faces  astounding  prejudice.  That 
which  may  be  assumed  as  true  of  white  men  must 
be  proven  beyond  peradventure  if  it  relates  to 
Negroes.  One  who  writes  of  the  development 
of  the  Negro  race  must  continually  insist  that  he 
is  writing  of  a normal  human  stock,  and  that 
whatever  it  is  fair  to  predicate  of  the  mass  of 
human  beings  may  be  predicated  of  the  Negro. 
It  is  the  silent  refusal  to  do  this  which  has  led 
to  so  much  false  writing  on  Africa  and  of  its 
inhabitants.  Take,  for  instance,  the  answer  to 
the  apparently  simple  question  “What  is  a 
Negro?”  We  find  the  most  extraordinary  con- 
fusion of  thought  and  difference  of  opinion. 
There  is  a certain  type  in  the  minds  of  most 
people  which,  as  David  Livingstone  said,  can 
be  found  only  in  caricature  and  not  in  real  life. 
When  scientists  have  tried  to  find  an  extreme 
type  of  black,  ugly,  and  woolly-haired  Negro, 


AFRICA 


13 


they  have  been  compelled  more  and  more  to 
limit  his  home  even  in  Africa.  At  least  nine- 
tenths  of  the  African  people  do  not  at  all  conform 
to  this  type,  and  the  typical  Negro,  after  being 
denied  a dwelling  place  in  the  Sudan,  along  the 
Nile,  in  East  Central  Africa,  and  in  South  Africa, 
was  finally  given  a very  small  country  between 
the  Senegal  and  the  Niger,  and  even  there  was 
found  to  give  trace  of  many  stocks.  As  Win  wood 
Reade  says,  “The  typical  Negro  is  a rare  variety 
even  among  Negroes.” 

As  a matter  of  fact  we  cannot  take  such  ex- 
treme and  largely  fanciful  stock  as  typifying  that 
which  we  may  fairly  call  the  Negro  race.  In  the 
case  of  no  other  race  is  so  narrow  a definition 
attempted.  A “white”  man  may  be  of  any  color, 
size,  or  facial  conformation  and  have  endless 
variety  of  cranial  measurement  and  physical 
characteristics.  A “yellow”  man  is  perhaps  an 
even  vaguer  conception. 

In  fact  it  is  generally  recognized  to-day  that 
no  scientific  definition  of  race  is  possible.  Dif- 
ferences, and  striking  differences,  there  are  be- 
tween men  and  groups  of  men,  but  they  fade 
into  each  other  so  insensibly  that  we  can  only 
indicate  the  main  divisions  of  men  in  broad  out- 
lines. As  Von  Luschan  says,  “The  question  of 
the  number  of  human  races  has  quite  lost  its 
raison  d’etre  and  has  become  a subject  rather  of 
philosophic  speculation  than  of  scientific  research. 
It  is  of  no  more  importance  now  to  know  how 
many  human  races  there  are  than  to  know  how 


14 


THE  NEGRO 


many  angels  can  dance  on  the  point  of  a needle. 
Our  aim  now  is  to  find  out  how  ancient  and  primi- 
tive races  developed  from  others  and  how  races 
changed  or  evolved  through  migration  and  in- 
ter-breeding.” 1 

The  mulatto  (using  the  term  loosely  to  in- 
dicate either  an  intermediate  type  between  white 
and  black  or  a mingling  of  the  two)  is  as  typically 
African  as  the  black  man  and  cannot  logically 
be  included  in  the  “white”  race,  especially  when 
American  usage  includes  the  mulatto  in  the  Negro 
race. 

It  is  reasonable,  according  to  fact  and  historic 
usage,  to  include  under  the  word  “Negro”  the 
darker  peoples  of  Africa  characterized  by  a brown 
skin,  curled  or  “frizzled”  hair,  full  and  some- 
times everted  lips,  a tendency  to  a development 
of  the  maxillary  parts  of  the  face,  and  a doli- 
chocephalic head.  This  type  is  not  fixed  or 
definite.  The  color  varies  widely;  it  is  never 
black  or  bluish,  as  some  say,  and  it  becomes 
often  fight  brown  or  yellow.  The  hair  varies  from 
curly  to  a wool-like  mass,  and  the  facial  angle  and 
cranial  form  show  wide  variation. 

It  is  as  impossible  in  Africa  as  elsewhere  to 
fix  with  any  certainty  the  limits  of  racial  varia- 
tion due  to  climate  and  the  variation  due  to  in- 
termingling. In  the  past,  when  scientists  assumed 
one  unvarying  Negro  type,  every  variation  from 
that  type  was  interpreted  as  meaning  mixture 


1 Von  Luschan:  in  Inter-Racial  Problems,  p.  16. 


AFRICA 


15 


of  blood.  To-day  we  recognize  a broader  normal 
African  type  which,  as  Palgrave  says,  may  best 
be  studied  “among  the  statues  of  the  Egyptian 
rooms  of  the  British  Museum;  the  larger  gentle 
eye,  the  full  but  not  over-protruding  lips,  the 
rounded  contour,  and  the  good-natured,  easy, 
sensuous  expression.  This  is  the  genuine  African 
model.”  To  this  race  Africa  in  the  main  and 
parts  of  Asia  have  belonged  since  prehistoric 
times. 

The  color  of  this  variety  of  man,  as  the  color 
of  other  varieties,  is  due  to  climate.  Conditions 
of  heat,  cold,  and  moisture,  working  for  thou- 
sands of  years  through  the  skin  and  other  organs, 
have  given  men  their  differences  of  color.  This 
color  pigment  is  a protection  against  sunlight 
and  consequently  varies  with  the  intensity  of 
the  sunlight.  Thus  in  Africa  we  find  the  black- 
est men  in  the  fierce  sunlight  of  the  desert,  red 
pygmies  in  the  forest,  and  yellow  Bushmen  on 
the  cooler  southern  plateau. 

Next  to  the  color,  the  hair  is  the  most  dis- 
tinguishing characteristic,  of  the  Negro,  but  the 
two  characteristics  do  not  vary  with  each  other. 
Some  of  the  blackest  of  the  Negroes  have  curly 
rather  than  woolly  hair,  while  the  crispest,  most 
closely  curled  hair  is  found  among  the  yellow 
Hottentots  and  Bushmen.  The  difference  be- 
tween the  hair  of  the  lighter  and  darker  races  is  a 
difference  of  degree,  not  of  kind,  and  can  be 
easily  measured.  If  the  hair  follicles  of  a China- 
man, a European,  and  a Negro  are  cut  across 


16 


THE  NEGRO 


transversely /it  will  be  found  that  the  diameter  of 
the  first  is  100  by  77  to  85,  the  second  100  by  62 
to  72,  while  that  of  the  Negro  is  100  by  40  to  60. 
This  elliptical  form  of  the  Negro’s  hair  causes  it 
to  curl  more  or  less  tightly. 

There  have  been  repeated  efforts  to  discover, 
by  measurements  of  various  kinds,  further  and 
more  decisive  differences  which  would  serve  as 
really  scientific  determinants  of  race.  Gradually 
these  efforts  have  been  given  up.  To-day  we 
realize  that  there  are  no  hard  and  fast  racial 
types  among  men.  Race  is  a dynamic  and  not  a 
static  conception,  and  the  typical  races  are  con- 
tinually changing  and  developing,  amalgamating 
and  differentiating.  In  this  little  book,  then,  we 
are  studying  the  history  of  the  darker  part  of  the 
human  family,  which  is  separated  from  the  rest 
of  mankind  by  no  absolute  physical  line,  but  which 
nevertheless  forms,  as  a mass,  a social  group  dis- 
tinct in  history,  appearance,  and  to  some  extent 
in  spiritual  gift. 

We  cannot  study  Africa  without,  however, 
noting  some  of  the  other  races  concerned  in  its 
history,  particularly  the  Asiatic  Semites.  The 
intercourse  of  Africa  with  Arabia  and  other  parts 
of  Asia  has  been  so  close  and  long-continued  that 
it  is  impossible  to-day  to  disentangle  the  blood 
relationships.  Negro  blood  certainly  appears  in 
strong  strain  among  the  Semites,  and  the  obvious 
mulatto  groups  in  Africa,  arising  from  ancient 
and  modern  mingling  of  Semite  and  Negro,  has 
given  rise  to  the  term  “Hamite,”  under  cover  of 


AFRICA 


17 


which  millions  of  Negroids  have  been  charac- 
teristically transferred  to  the  “white”  race  by 
some  eager  scientists. 

The  earliest  Semites  came  to  Africa  across  the 
Red  Sea.  The  Phoenicians  came  along  the  north- 
ern coasts  a thousand  years  before  Christ  and 
began  settlements  which  culminated  in  Carthage 
and  extended  down  the  Atlantic  shores  of  North 
Africa  nearly  to  the  Gulf  of  Guinea. 

From  the  earliest  times  the  Greeks  have  been 
in  contact  with  Africa  as  visitors,  traders,  and 
colonists,  and  the  Persian  influence  came  with 
Cambyses  and  others.  Roman  Africa  was 
bounded  by  the  desert,  but  at  times  came  into 
contact  with  the  blacks  across  the  Sahara  and 
in  the  valley  of  the  Nile.  After  the  breaking  up 
of  the  Roman  Empire  the  Greek  and  Latin 
Christians  filtered  through  Africa,  followed  finally 
by  a Germanic  invasion  in  429  a.d. 

In  the  seventh  century  the  All-Mother,  Asia, 
claimed  Africa  again  for  her  own  and  blew  a 
cloud  of  Semitic  Mohammedanism  all  across 
North  Africa,  veiling  the  dark  continent  from 
Europe  for  a thousand  years  and  converting 
vast  masses  of  the  blacks  to  Islam.  The  Portu- 
guese began  to  raise  the  veil  in  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury, sailing  down  the  Atlantic  coast  and  initiating 
the  modern  slave  trade.  The  Spanish,  French, 
Dutch,  and  English  followed  them,  but  as  traders 
in  men  rather  than  explorers. 

The  Portuguese  explored  the  coasts  of  the  Gulf 
of  Guinea,  visiting  the  interior  kingdoms,  and  then 


18 


THE  NEGRO 


passing  by  the  mouth  of  the  Congo  proceeded 
southward.  Eventually  they  rounded  the  Cape 
of  Good  Hope  and  pursued  their  explorations  as 
far  as  the  mountains  of  Abyssinia.  This  began 
the  modern  exploration  of  Africa,  which  is  a curi- 
ous fairy  tale,  and  recalls  to  us  the  great  names 
of  Livingstone,  Burton,  Speke,  Stanley,  Barth, 
Schweinfurth,  and  many  others.  In  this  way 
Africa  has  been  made  known  to  the  modern  world. 

The  difficulty  of  this  modern  lifting  of  the  veil 
of  centuries  emphasizes  two  physical  facts  that 
underlie  all  African  history : the  peculiar  inaccessi- 
bility of  the  continent  to  peoples  from  without, 
which  made  it  so  easily  possible  for  the  great 
human  drama  played  here  to  hide  itself  from  the 
ears  of  other  worlds;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
absence  of  interior  barriers  — the  great  stretch 
of  that  central  plateau  which  placed  practically 
every  budding  center  of  culture  at  the  mercy  of 
barbarism,  sweeping  a thousand  miles,  with  no 
Alps  or  Himalayas  or  Appalachians  to  hinder. 

With  this  peculiarly  uninviting  coast  line  and 
the  difficulties  in  interior  segregation  must  be 
considered  the  climate  of  Africa.  While  there  is 
much  diversity  and  many  salubrious  tracts  along 
with  vast  barren  wastes,  yet,  as  Sir  Harry  John- 
ston well  remarks,  “Africa  is  the  chief  strong- 
hold of  the  real  Devil  — the  reactionary  forces 
of  Nature  hostile  to  the  uprise  of  Humanity. 
Here  Beelzebub,  King  of  the  Flies,  marshals  his 
vermiform  and  arthropod  hosts  — insects,  ticks, 
and  nematode  worms  — which  more  than  in 


AFRICA 


19 


other  continents  (excepting  Negroid  Asia)  con- 
vey to  the  skin,  veins,  intestines,  and  spinal 
marrow  of  men  and  other  vertebrates  the  micro- 
organisms which  cause  deadly,  disfiguring,  or 
debilitating  diseases,  or  themselves  create  the 
morbid  condition  of  the  persecuted  human  being, 
beasts,  bird,  reptile,  frog,  or  fish.”  1 The  in- 
habitants of  this  land  have  had  a sheer  fight  for 
physical  survival  comparable  with  that  in  no 
other  great  continent,  and  this  must  not  be  for- 
gotten when  we  consider  their  history. 

1 Johnston:  Negro  in  the  New  World , pp.  14-15. 


CHAPTER  II 


THE  COMING  OF  BLACK  MEN 

The  movements  of  prehistoric  man  can  be 
seen  as  yet  but  dimly  in  the  uncertain  mists  of 
time.  This  is  the  story  that  to-day  seems  most 
probable:  from  some  center  in  southern  Asia 

primitive  human  beings  began  to  differentiate  in 
two  directions.  Toward  the  south  appeared 
the  primitive  Negro,  long-headed  and  with 
flattened  hair  follicle.  He  spread  along  southern 
Asia  and  passed  over  into  Africa,  where  he  sur- 
vives to-day  as  the  reddish  dwarfs  of  the  center 
and  the  Bushmen  of  South  Africa. 

Northward  and  eastward  primitive  man  be- 
came broader  headed  and  straight-haired  and 
spread  over  eastern  Asia,  forming  the  Mongolian 
type.  Either  through  the  intermingling  of  these 
two  types  or,  as  some  prefer  to  think,  by  the  direct 
prolongation  of  the  original  primitive  man,  a 
third  intermediate  type  of  human  being  appeared 
with  hair  and  cranial  measurement  intermediate 
between  the  primitive  Negro  and  Mongolian. 
All  these  three  types  of  men  intermingled  their 
blood  freely  and  developed  variations  according 
to  climate  and  environment. 

Other  and  older  theories  and  legends  of  the 
origin  and  spread  of  mankind  are  of  interest  now 


COMING  OF  BLACK  MEN 


21 


only  because  so  many  human  beings  have  be- 
lived  them  in  the  past.  The  biblical  story  of 
Shem,  Ham,  and  Japheth  retains  the  interest  of 
a primitive  myth  with  its  measure  of  allegorical 
truth,1  but  has,  of  course,  no  historic  basis. 

The  older  “Aryan”  theory  assumed  the  mi- 
gration into  Europe  of  one  dominant  Asiatic 
race  of  civilized  conquerors,  to  whose  blood  and 
influence  all  modern  culture  was  due.  To  this 
“white”  race  Semitic  Asia,  a large  part  of  black 
Africa,  and  all  Europe  was  supposed  to  belong. 
This  “Aryan”  theory  has  been  practically  aban- 
doned in  the  light  of  recent  research,  and  it  seems 
probable  now  that  from  the  primitive  Negroid 
stock  evolved  in  Asia  the  Semites  either  by  local 
variation  or  intermingling  with  other  stocks;  later 
there  developed  the  Mediterranean  race,  with 
Negroid  characteristics,  and  the  modern  Negroes. 
The  blue-eyed,  light-haired  Germanic  people  may 
have  arisen  as  a modern  variation  of  the  mixed 
peoples  produced  by  the  mingling  of  Asiatic  and 
African  elements.  The  last  word  on  this  develop- 
ment has  not  yet  been  said,  and  there  is  still  much 

1 Ham  is  probably  the  Egyptian  word  “Khem”  (black), 
the  native  name  of  Egypt.  In  the  original  myth  Canaan  and 
not  Ham  was  Noah’s  third  son. 

The  biblical  story  of  the  “curse  of  Canaan”  (Genesis  IX, 
24-25)  has  been  the  basis  of  an  astonishing  literature  which 
has  to-day  only  a psychological  interest.  It  is  sufficient  to 
remember  that  for  several  centuries  leaders  of  the  Christian 
Church  gravely  defended  Negro  slavery  and  oppression  as 
the  rightful  curse  of  God  upon  the  descendants  of  a son  who 
had  been  disrespectful  to  his  drunken  father!  Cf.  Bishop 
Hopkins:  Bible  Views  of  Slaver y,  p.  7. 


22 


THE  NEGRO 


to  learn  and  explain;  but  it  is  certainly  proved 
to-day  beyond  doubt  that  the  so-called  Hamites 
of  Africa,  the  brown  and  black  curly  and  frizzly- 
haired inhabitants  of  North  and  East  Africa, 
are  not  “white”  men  if  we  draw  the  line  between 
white  and  black  in  any  logical  way. 

The  primitive  Negroid  race  of  men  developed 
in  Asia  wandered  eastward  as  well  as  westward. 
They  entered  on  the  one  hand  Burmah  and  the 
South  Sea  Islands,  and  on  the  other  hand  they 
came  through  Mesopotamia  and  gave  curly  hair 
and  a Negroid  type  to  Jew,  Syrian,  and  Assy- 
rian. Ancient  statues  of  Indian  divinities  show 
the  Negro  type  with  black  face  and  close- 
curled  hair,  and  early  Babylonian  culture  was 
Negroid.  In  Arabia  the  Negroes  may  have 
divided,  and  one  stream  perhaps  wandered  into 
Europe  by  way  of  Syria.  Traces  of  these  Ne- 
groes are  manifest  not  only  in  skeletons,  but  in 
the  brunette  type  of  all  South  Europe.  The  other 
branch  proceeded  to  Egypt  and  tropical  Africa. 
Another,  but  perhaps  less  probable,  theory  is 
that  ancient  Negroes  may  have  entered  Africa 
from  Europe,  since  the  most  ancient  skulls  of 
Algeria  are  Negroid. 

The  primitive  African  was  not  an  extreme  type. 
One  may  judge  from  modern  pygmy  and  Bush- 
men that  his  color  was  reddish  or  yellow,  and 
his  skull  was  sometimes  round  like  the  Mon- 
golian. He  entered  Africa  not  less  than  fifty 
thousand  years  ago  and  settled  eventually  in 
the  broad  region  between  Lake  Chad  and  the 


COMING  OF  BLACK  MEN 


23 


Great  Lakes  and  remained  there  long  stretches  of 
years. 

After  a lapse  of  perhaps  thirty  thousand  years 
there  entered  Africa  a further  migration  of 
Asiatic  people,  Negroid  in  many  characteristics, 
but  lighter  and  straighter  haired  than  the  primi- 
tive Negroes.  From  this  Mediterranean  race 
was  developed  the  modern  inhabitants  of  the 
shores  of  the  Mediterranean  in  Europe,  Asia,  and 
Africa  and,  by  mingling  with  the  primitive 
Negroes,  the  ancient  Egyptians  and  modern 
Negroid  races  of  Africa. 

As  we  near  historic  times  the  migrations  of 
men  became  more  frequent  from  Asia  and  from 
Europe,  and  in  Africa  came  movements  and  ming- 
lings  which  give  to  the  whole  of  Africa  a distinct 
mulatto  character.  The  primitive  Negro  stock 
was  “mulatto”  in  the  sense  of  being  not  widely 
differentiated  from  the  dark,  original  Australoid 
stock.  As  the  earlier  yellow  Negro  developed  in 
the  African  tropics  to  the  bigger,  blacker  type, 
he  was  continually  mingling  his  blood  with 
similar  types  developed  in  temperate  climes  to 
sallower  color  and  straighter  hair. 

We  find  therefore,  in  Africa  to-day,  every 
degree  of  development  in  Negroid  stocks  and 
every  degree  of  intermingling  of  these  develop- 
ments, both  among  African  peoples  and  between 
Africans,  Europeans,  and  Asiatics.  The  mistake 
is  continually  made  of  considering  these  types 
as  transitions  between  absolute  Caucasians 
and  absolute  Negroes.  No  such  absolute  type 


24 


THE  NEGRO 


ever  existed  on  either  side.  Both  were  slowly 
differentiated  from  a common  ancestry  and  con- 
tinually remingled  their  blood  while  the  dif- 
ferentiating was  progressing.  From  prehistoric 
times  down  to  to-day  Africa  is,  in  this  sense, 
primarily  the  land  of  the  mulatto.  So,  too,  was 
earlier  Europe  and  Asia;  only  in  these  countries 
the  mulatto  was  early  bleached  by  the  climate, 
whiie  in  Africa  he  was  darkened. 

It  is  not  easy  to  summarize  the  history  of 
these  dark  African  peoples,  because  so  little  is 
known  and  so  much  is  still  in  dispute.  Yet,  by 
avoiding  the  real  controversies  and  being  unafraid 
of  mere  questions  of  definition,  we  may  trace  a 
great  human  movement  with  considerable  defi- 
niteness. 

Three  main  Negro  types  early  made  their 
appearance:  the  lighter  and  smaller  primitive 
stock;  the  larger  forest  Negro  in  the  center  and 
on  the  west  coast,  and  the  tall,  black  Nilotic 
Negro  in  the  eastern  Sudan.  In  the  earliest 
times  we  find  the  Negroes  in  the  valley  of  the 
Nile,  pressing  downward  from  the  interior.  Here 
they  mingled  with  Semitic  types,  and  after  a 
lapse  of  millenniums  there  arose  from  this  ming- 
ling the  culture  of  Ethiopia  and  Egypt,  probably 
the  first  of  higher  human  cultures. 

To  the  west  of  the  Nile  the  Negroes  expanded 
straight  across  the  continent  to  the  Atlantic. 
Centers  of  higher  culture  appeared  very  early 
along  the  Gulf  of  Guinea  and  curling  backward 
met  Egyptian,  Ethiopian,  and  even  European 


COMING  OF  BLACK  MEN 


25 


and  Asiatic  influences  about  Lake  Chad.  To  the 
southeast,  nearer  the  primitive  seats  of  the  earli- 
est African  immigrants  and  open  to  Egyptian 
and  East  Indian  influences,  the  Negro  culture 
which  culminated  at  Zymbabwe  arose,  and  one 
may  trace  throughout  South  Africa  its  wide  rami- 
fications. 

All  these  movements  gradually  aroused  the 
central  tribes  to  unrest.  They  beat  against  the 
barriers  north,  northeast,  and  west,  but  grad- 
ually settled  into  a great  southeastward  migra- 
tion. Calling  themselves  proudly  La  Bantu 
(The  People),  they  grew  by  agglomeration  into 
a warlike  nation,  speaking  one  language.  They 
eventually  conquered  all  Africa  south  of  the  Gulf 
of  Guinea  and  spread  their  influence  to  the 
northward. 

While  these  great  movements  were  slowly 
transforming  Africa,  she  was  also  receiving  in- 
fluences from  beyond  her  shores  and  sending 
influences  out.  With  mulatto  Egypt  black 
Africa  was  always  in  closest  touch,  so  much  so 
that  to  some  all  evidences  of  Negro  uplift  seem 
Egyptian  in  origin.  The  truth  is,  rather,  that 
Egypt  was  herself  always  palpably  Negroid,  and 
from  her  vantage  ground  as  almost  the  only 
African  gateway  received  and  transmitted  Negro 
ideals. 

Phoenician,  Greek,  and  Roman  came  into 
touch  more  or  less  with  black  Africa.  Carthage, 
that  North  African  city  of  a million  men,  had  a 
large  caravan  trade  with  Negroland  in  ivory, 


26 


THE  NEGRO 


metals,  cloth,  precious  stones,  and  slaves.  Black 
men  served  in  the  Carthaginian  armies  and 
marched  with  Hannibal  on  Rome.  In  some  of 
the  North  African  kingdoms  the  infiltration  of 
Negro  blood  was  very  large  and  kings  like  Mas- 
sinissa  and  Jugurtha  were  Negroid.  By  way  of 
the  Atlantic  the  Carthaginians  reached  the 
African  west  coast.  Greek  and  Roman  in- 
fluences came  through  the  desert,  and  the 
Byzantine  Empire  and  Persia  came  into  com- 
munication with  Negroland  by  way  of  the  valley 
of  the  Nile.  The  influence  of  these  trade  routes, 
added  to  those  of  Egypt,  Ethiopia,  Benin,  and 
Yoruba,  stimulated  centers  of  culture  in  the 
central  and  western  Sudan,  and  European  and 
African  trade  early  reached  large  volume. 

Negro  soldiers  were  used  largely  in  the  armies 
that  enabled  the  Mohammedans  to  conquer 
North  Africa  and  Spain.  Beginning  in  the  tenth 
century  and  slowly  creeping  across  the  desert 
into  Negroland,  the  new  religion  found  an 
already  existent  culture  and  came,  not  a con- 
queror, but  as  an  adapter  and  inspirer.  Civili- 
zation received  new  impetus  and  a wave  of 
Mohammedanism  swept  eastward,  erecting  the 
great  kingdoms  of  Melle,  the  Songhay,  Bornu, 
and  the  Hausa  states.  The  older  Negro  culture 
was  not  overthrown,  but,  like  a great  wedge, 
pushed  upward  and  inward  from  Yoruba,  and 
gave  stubborn  battle  to  the  newer  culture  for 
seven  or  eight  centuries. 

Then  it  was,  in  the  fifteenth  century,  that  the 


COMING  OF  BLACK  MEN 


27 


heart  disease  of  Africa  developed  in  its  most 
virulent  form.  There  is  a modern  theory  that 
black  men  are  and  always  have  been  naturally 
slaves.  Nothing  is  further  from  the  truth.  In 
the  ancient  world  Africa  was  no  more  a slave 
hunting  ground  than  Europe  or  Asia,  and  both 
Greece  and  Rome  had  much  larger  numbers  of 
white  slaves  than  of  black.  It  was  natural  that 
a stream  of  black  slaves  should  have  poured  into 
Egypt,  because  the  chief  line  of  Egyptian  con- 
quest and  defense  lay  toward  the  heart  of  Africa. 
Moreover,  the  Egyptians,  themselves  of  Negro 
descent,  had  not  only  Negro  slaves  but  Negroes 
among  their  highest  nobility  and  even  among 
their  Pharaohs.  Mohammedan  conquerors  en- 
slaved peoples  of  all  colors  in  Europe,  Asia,  and 
Africa,  but  eventually  their  empire  centered  in 
Asia  and  Africa  and  their  slaves  came  prin- 
cipally from  these  countries.  Asia  submitted  to 
Islam  except  in  the  Far  East,  which  was  self- 
protecting.  Negro  Africa  submitted  only  par- 
tially, and  the  remaining  heathen  were  in  small 
states  which  could  not  effectively  protect  them- 
selves against  the  Mohammedan  slave  trade. 
In  this  wise  the  slave  trade  gradually  began  to 
center  in  Africa,  for  religious  and  political  rather 
than  for  racial  reasons. 

The  typical  African  culture  was  the  culture  of 
family,  town,  and  small  tribe.  Hence  domestic 
slavery  easily  developed  a slave  trade  through 
war  and  commerce.  Only  the  integrating  force 
of  state  building  could  have  stopped  this  slave 


28 


THE  NEGRO 


trade.  Was  this  failure  to  develop  the  great 
state  a racial  characteristic?  This  does  not 
seem  a fair  conclusion.  In  four  great  centers 
state  building  began  in  Africa.  In  Ethiopia 
several  large  states  were  built  up,  but  they 
tottered  before  the  onslaughts  of  Egypt,  Persia, 
Rome,  and  Byzantium,  on  the  one  hand,  and 
finally  fell  before  the  turbulent  Bantu  warriors 
from  the  interior.  The  second  attempt  at  em- 
pire building  began  in  the  southeast,  but  the 
same  Bantu  hordes,  pressing  now  slowly,  now 
fiercely,  from  the  congested  center  of  the  con- 
tinent, gradually  overthrew  this  state  and 
erected  on  its  ruins  a series  of  smaller  and 
more  transient  kingdoms. 

The  third  attempt  at  state  building  arose  on 
the  Guinea  coast  in  Benin  and  Yoruba.  It  never 
got  much  beyond  a federation  of  large  industrial 
cities.  Its  expansion  toward  the  Congo  valley 
was  probably  a prime  cause  of  the  original  Bantu 
movements  to  the  southeast.  Toward  the  north 
and  northeast,  on  the  other  hand,  these  city- 
states  met  the  Sudanese  armed  with  the  new 
imperial  Mohammedan  idea.  Just  as  Latin 
Rome  gave  the  imperial  idea  to  the  Nordic  races, 
so  Islam  brought  this  idea  to  the  Sudan. 

In  the  consequent  attempts  at  imperialism  in 
the  western  Sudan  there  arose  the  largest  of  the 
African  empires.  Two  circumstances,  however, 
militated  against  this  empire  building:  first, 

the  fierce  resistance  of  the  heathen  south  made 
war  continuous  and  slaves  one  of  the  articles  of 


COMING  OF  BLACK  MEN 


29 


systematic  commerce.  Secondly,  the  highways 
of  legitimate  African  commerce  had  for  millen- 
niums lain  to  the  northward.  These  were 
suddenly  closed  by  the  Moors  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  and  the  Negro  empires  were  thrown 
into  the  turmoil  of  internal  war. 

It  was  then  that  the  European  slave  traders 
came  from  the  southwest.  They  found  par- 
tially disrupted  Negro  states  on  the  west  coast 
and  falling  empires  in  the  Sudan,  together  with 
the  old  unrest  of  over-population  and  migration 
in  the  valley  of  the  Congo.  They  not  only 
offered  a demand  for  the  usual  slave  trade,  but 
they  increased  it  to  an  enormous  degree,  until 
their  demand,  added  to  the  demand  of  the 
Mohammedan  in  Africa  and  Asia,  made  human 
beings  the  highest  priced  article  of  commerce 
in  Africa.  Under  such  circumstances  there 
could  be  but  one  end:  the  virtual  uprooting  of 
ancient  African  culture,  leaving  only  misty  re- 
minders of  the  ruin  in  the  customs  and  work  of 
the  people.  To  complete  this  disaster  came  the 
partition  of  the  continent  among  European  na- 
tions and  the  modern  attempt  to  exploit  the 
country  and  the  natives  for  the  economic  bene- 
fit of  the  white  world,  together  with  the  trans- 
planting of  black  nations  to  the  new  western 
world  and  their  rise  and  self-assertion  there. 


CHAPTER  III 


ETHIOPIA  AND  EGYPT 

Having  viewed  now  the  land  and  movements  ' 
of  African  people  in  main  outline,  let  us  scan 
more  narrowly  the  history  of  five  main  centers 
of  activity  and  culture,  namely:  the  valleys  of 
the  Nile  and  of  the  Congo,  the  borders  of  the 
great  Gulf  of  Guinea,  the  Sudan,  and  South 
Africa.  These  divisions  do  not  cover  all  of 
Negro  Africa,  but  they  take  in  the  main  areas 
and  the  main  lines  in  development. 

First,  we  turn  to  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  per- 
haps the  most  ancient  of  known  seats  of  civili- 
zation in  the  world,  and  certainly  the  oldest  in 
Africa,  with  a culture  reaching  back  six  or  eight 
thousand  years.  Like  all  civilizations  it  drew 
largely  from  without  and  undoubtedly  arose  in 
the  valley  of  the  Nile,  because  that  valley  was  so 
easily  made  a center  for  the  meeting  of  men  of  all 
types  and  from  all  parts  of  the  world.  At  the 
same  time  Egyptian  civilization  seems  to  have 
been  African  in  its  beginnings  and  in  its  main 
line  of  development,  despite  strong  influences 
from  all  parts  of  Asia.  Of  what  race,  then,  were 
the  Egyptians?  They  certainly  were  not  white 
in  any  sense  of  the  modern  use  of  that  word  — 
neither  in  color  nor  physical  measurement,  in 
so 


ETHIOPIA  AND  EGYPT 


31 


hair  nor  countenance,  in  language  nor  social 
customs.  They  stood  in  relationship  nearest 
the  Negro  race  in  earliest  times,  and  then  grad- 
ually through  the  infiltration  of  Mediterranean 
and  Semitic  elements  became  what  would  be 
described  in  America  as  a light  mulatto  stock  of 
Octoroons  or  Quadroons.  This  stock  was  varied 
continually:  now  by  new  infiltration  of  Negro 
blood  from  the  south,  now  by  Negroid  and  Sem- 
itic blood  from  the  east,  now  by  Berber  types 
from  the  north  and  west. 

Egyptian  monuments  show  distinctly  Negro 
and  mulatto  faces.  Herodotus,  in  an  incontro- 
vertible passage,  alludes  to  the  Egyptians  as 
“black  and  curly -haired  ” 1 — a peculiarly  signifi- 
cant statement  from  one  used  to  the  brunette 
Mediterranean  type;  in  another  passage,  con- 
cerning the  fable  of  the  Dodonian  Oracle,  he 
again  alludes  to  the  swarthy  color  of  the  Egyp- 
tians as  exceedingly  dark  and  even  black. 
iEschylus,  mentioning  a boat  seen  from  the 
shore,  declares  that  its  crew  are  Egyptians,  be- 
cause of  their  black  complexions. 

Modern  measurements,  with  all  their  admitted 
limitations,  show  that  in  the  Thebaid  from  one- 
seventh  to  one-third  of  the  Egyptian  popula- 
tion were  Negroes,  and  that  of  the  predynastic 
Egyptians  less  than  half  could  be  classed  as  non- 
Negroid.  Judging  from  measurements  in  the 
tombs  of  nobles  as  late  as  the  eighteenth  dynasty, 

1 " ain&s  Si  tUatra  rjjSe  Kai  Srt  nt\ayxpots  tla i nal  oiXorpixeJ.” 
Liber  II,  Cap.  104. 


32  THE  NEGRO 

Negroes  form  at  least  one-sixth  of  the  higher 
class.1 

Such  measurements  are  by  no  means  conclu- 
sive, but  they  are  apt  to  be  under  rather  than 
over  statements  of  the  prevalence  of  Negro  blood. 
Head  measurements  of  Negro  Americans  would 
probably  place  most  of  them  in  the  category  of 
whites.  The  evidence  of  language  also  connects 
Egypt  with  Africa  and  the  Negro  race  rather  than 
with  Asia,  while  religious  ceremonies  and  social 
customs  all  go  to  strengthen  this  evidence. 

The  ethnic  history  of  Northeast  Africa  would 
seem,  therefore,  to  have  been  this:  predynastic 
Egypt  was  settled  by  Negroes  from  Ethiopia. 
They  were  of  varied  types:  the  broad-nosed, 
woolly -haired  type  to  which  the  word  “Negro” 
is  sometimes  confined;  the  black,  curly-haired, 
sharper  featured  type,  which  must  be  con- 
sidered an  equally  Negroid  variation.  These 
Negroes  met  and  mingled  with  the  invading 
Mediterranean  race  from  North  Africa  and  Asia. 
Thus  the  blood  of  the  sallower  race  spread  south 
and  that  of  the  darker  race  north.  Black  priests 
appear  in  Crete  three  thousand  years  before 
Christ,  and  Arabia  is  to  this  day  thoroughly 
permeated  with  Negro  blood.  Perhaps,  as  Cham- 
berlain says,  “one  of  the  prime  reasons  why  no 
civilization  of  the  type  of  that  of  the  Nile  arose 
in  other  parts  of  the  continent,  if  such  a thing 
were  at  all  possible,  was  that  Egypt  acted  as  a 
sort  of  channel  by  which  the  genius  of  Negro- 
1 Cf.  Maciver  and  Thompson:  Ancient  Races  of  the  Tkebaid. 


ETHIOPIA  AND  EGYPT 


33 


land  was  drafted  off  into  the  service  of  Medi- 
terranean and  Asiatic  culture.”  1 

To  one  familiar  with  the  striking  and  beautiful 
types  arising  from  the  mingling  of  Negro  with 
Latin  and  Germanic  types  in  America,  the  puzzle 
of  the  Egyptian  type  is  easily  solved.  It  was 
unlike  any  of  its  neighbors  and  a unique  type 
until  one  views  the  modern  mulatto;  then  the 
faces  of  Rahotep  and  Nefert,  of  Khafra  and 
Amenemhat  I,  of  Aahmes  and  Nefertari,  and 
even  of  the  great  Ramessu  II,  become  curiously 
familiar. 

The  history  of  Egypt  is  a science  in  itself. 
Before  the  reign  of  the  first  recorded  king,  five 
thousand  years  or  more  before  Christ,  there  had 
already  existed  in  Egypt  a culture  and  art  arising 
by  long  evolution  from  the  days  of  paleolithic 
man,  among  a distinctly  Negroid  people.  About 
4777  b.c.  Aha-Mena  began  the  first  of  three 
successive  Egyptian  empires.  This  lasted  two 
thousand  years,  with  many  Pharaohs,  like  Khafra 
of  the  Fourth  Dynasty,  of  a strongly  Negroid 
cast  of  countenance. 

At  the  end  of  the  period  the  empire  fell  apart 
into  Egyptian  and  Ethiopian  halves,  and  a 
silence  of  three  centuries  ensued.  It  is  quite 
possible  that  an  incursion  of  conquering  black 
men  from  the  south  poured  over  the  land  in 
these  years  and  dotted  Egypt  in  the  next 
centuries  with  monuments  on  which  the  full- 
blooded  Negro  type  is  strongly  and  trium- 
1 Journal  of  Race  Development,  I,  484. 


34 


THE  NEGRO 


phantly  impressed.  The  great  Sphinx  at  Gizeh,  so 
familiar  to  all  the  world,  the  Sphinxes  of  Tanis, 
the  statue  from  the  Fayum,  the  statue  of  the 
Esquiline  at  Rome,  and  the  Colossi  of  Bubastis 
all  represent  black,  full-blooded  Negroes  and 
are  described  by  Petrie  as  “having  high  cheek 
bones,  flat  cheeks,  both  in  one  plane,  a mas- 
sive nose,  firm  projecting  lips,  and  thick  hair, 
with  an  austere  and  almost  savage  expression 
of  power.”  1 

Blyden,  the  great  modern  black  leader  of 
West  Africa,  said  of  the  Sphinx  at  Gizeh:  “Her 
features  are  decidedly  of  the  African  or  Negro 
type,  with  ‘expanded  nostrils.’  If,  then,  the 
Sphinx  was  placed  here  — looking  out  in  majestic 
and  mysterious  silence  over  the  empty  plain 
where  once  stood  the  great  city  of  Memphis  in 
all  its  pride  and  glory,  as  an  ‘emblematic  repre- 
sentation of  the  king’  — is  not  the  inference  clear 
as  to  the  peculiar  type  or  race  to  which  that  king 
belonged?”  2 

The  middle  empire  arose  3064  b.c.  and  lasted 
nearly  twenty-four  centuries.  Under  Pharaohs 
whose  Negro  descent  is  plainly  evident,  like 
Amenemhat  I and  III  and  Usertesen  I,  the  an- 
cient glories  of  Egypt  were  restored  and  surpassed. 
At  the  same  time  there  is  strong  continuous 
pressure  from  the  wild  and  unruly  Negro  tribes 
of  the  upper  Nile  valley,  and  we  get  some  idea  of 
the  fear  which  they  inspired  throughout  Egypt 

1 Petrie:  History  of  Egypt,  I,  51,  237. 

* From  J Vest  Africa  lo  Palestine,  p.  114. 


ETHIOPIA  AND  EGYPT 


35 


when  we  read  of  the  great  national  rejoicing 
which  followed  the  triumph  of  Usertesen  III 
(c.  2660-22)  over  these  hordes.  He  drove  them 
back  and  attempted  to  confine  them  to  the  edge 
of  the  Nubian  Desert  above  the  Second  Cataract. 
Hemmed  in  here,  they  set  up  a state  about  this 
time  and  founded  Nepata. 

Notwithstanding  this  repulse  of  black  men, 
less  than  one  hundred  years  later  a full-blooded 
Negro  from  the  south,  Ra  Nehesi,  was  seated  on 
the  throne  of  the  Pharaohs  and  was  called 
“The  king’s  eldest  son.”  This  may  mean  that 
an  incursion  from  the  far  south  had  placed  a 
black  conqueror  on  the  throne.  At  any  rate,  the 
whole  empire  was  in  some  way  shaken,  and  two 
hundred  years  later  the  invasion  of  the  Hyksos 
began.  The  domination  of  Hyksos  kings  who 
may  have  been  Negroids  from  Asia  1 lasted  for 
five  hundred  years. 

The  redemption  of  Egypt  from  these  bar- 
barians came  from  Upper  Egypt,  led  by  the 
mulatto  Aahmes.  He  founded  in  1703  b.c.  the 
new  empire,  which  lasted  fifteen  hundred  years. 
His  queen,  Nefertari,  “the  most  venerated  figure 
of  Egyptian  history,”2  was  a Negress  of  great 
beauty,  strong  personality,  and  of  unusual  ad- 
ministrative force.  She  was  for  many  years 

1 Depending  partly  on  whether  the  so-called  Hyksos 
sphinxes  belong  to  the  period  of  the  Hyksos  kings  or  to  an 
earlier  period  (ef.  Petrie,  I,  52-53,  237).  That  Negroids 
largely  dominated  in  the  early  history  of  western  Asia  is  proven 
by  the  monuments. 

* Petrie:  History  of  Egypt,  II,  337. 


36 


THE  NEGRO 


joint  ruler  with  her  son,  Amenhotep  I,  who  suc- 
ceeded his  father.1 

The  new  empire  was  a period  of  foreign  con- 
quest and  internal  splendor  and  finally  of 
religious  dispute  and  overthrow.  Syria  was  con- 
quered in  these  reigns  and  Asiatic  civilization 
and  influences  poured  in  upon  Egypt.  The  great 
Tahutmes  III,  whose  reign  was  “one  of  the 
grandest  and  most  eventful  in  Egyptian  history,” 2 
had  a strong  Negroid  countenance,  as  had  also 
Queen  Hatshepsut,  who  sent  the  celebrated  ex- 
pedition to  reopen  ancient  trade  with  the  Hot- 
tentots of  Punt.  A new  strain  of  Negro  blood 
came  to  the  royal  line  through  Queen  Mutemua 
about  1420  b.c.,  whose  son,  Amenhotep  III, 
built  a great  temple  at  Luqsor  and  the  Colossi 
at  Memnon. 

The  whole  of  the  period  in  a sense  culminated 
in  the  great  Ramessu  II,  the  oppressor  of  the 
Hebrews,  wTho  with  his  Egyptian,  Libyan,  and 
Negro  armies  fought  half  the  world.  His  reign, 
however,  was  the  beginning  of  decline,  and  foes 
began  to  press  Egypt  from  the  white  north  and 
the  black  south.  The  priests  transferred  their 
power  at  Thebes,  while  the  Assyrians  under 
Nimrod  overran  Lower  Egypt.  The  center  of 
interest  is  now  transferred  to  Ethiopia,  and 
we  pass  to  the  more  shadowy  history  of  that 
land. 

The  most  perfect  example  of  Egyptian  poetry 

1 Chamberlain:  Journal  of  Race  Development,  April,  1911. 

2 Petrie:  Historj/  of  Egypt,  II,  337. 


ETHIOPIA  AND  EGYPT 


37 


left  to  us  is  a celebration  of  the  prowess  of 
Usertesen  III  in  confining  the  turbulent  Negro 
tribes  to  the  territory  below  the  Second  Cataract 
of  the  Nile.  The  Egyptians  called  this  territory 
Kush,  and  in  the  farthest  confines  of  Kush  lay 
Punt,  the  cradle  of  their  race.  To  the  ancient 
Mediterranean  world  Ethiopia  (i.e.,  the  Land  of 
the  Black-faced)  was  a region  of  gods  and 
fairies.  Zeus  and  Poseidon  feasted  each  year 
among  the  “blameless  Ethiopians,”  and  Black 
Memnon,  King  of  Ethiopia,  was  one  of  the  great- 
est of  heroes. 

“The  Ethiopians  conceive  themselves,”  says 
Diodorus  Siculus  (Lib.  Ill),  “to  be  of  greater 
antiquity  than  any  other  nation;  and  it  is  prob- 
able that,  born  under  the  sun’s  path,  its  warmth 
may  have  ripened  them  earlier  than  other  men. 
They  suppose  themselves  also  to  be  the  inven- 
tors of  divine  worship,  of  festivals,  of  solemn 
assemblies,  of  sacrifices,  and  every  religious 
practice.  They  affirm  that  the  Egyptians  are 
one  of  their  colonies.” 

The  Egyptians  themselves,  in  later  days, 
affirmed  that  they  and  their  civilization  came 
from  the  south  and  from  the  black  tribes  of 
Punt,  and  certainly  “at  the  earliest  period  in 
which  human  remains  have  been  recovered  Egypt 
and  Lower  Nubia  appear  to  have  formed  cul- 
turally and  racially  one  land.”  1 

The  forging  ahead  of  Egypt  in  culture  was 
mainly  from  economic  causes.  Ethiopia,  living 
1 Reisner:  Archeological  Survey  of  Nubia,  I,  319. 


38 


THE  NEGRO 


in  a much  poorer  land  with  limited  agricultural 
facilities,  held  to  the  old  arts  and  customs,  and 
at  the  same  time  lost  the  best  elements  of  its 
population  to  Egypt,  absorbing  meantime  the 
oncoming  and  wilder  Negro  tribes  from  the  south 
and  west.  Under  the  old  empire,  therefore, 
Ethiopia  remained  in  comparative  poverty, 
except  as  some  of  its  tribes  invaded  Egypt  with 
their  handicrafts. 

As  soon  as  the  civilization  below  the  Second 
Cataract  reached  a height  noticeably  above 
that  of  Ethiopia,  there  was  continued  effort  to 
protect  that  civilization  against  the  incursion  of 
barbarians.  Hundreds  of  campaigns  through 
thousands  of  years  repeatedly  subdued  or  checked 
the  blacks  and  brought  them  in  as  captives  to 
mingle  their  blood  with  the  Egyptian  nation; 
but  the  Egyptian  frontier  was  not  advanced. 

A separate  and  independent  Ethiopian  cul- 
ture finally  began  to  arise  during  the  middle 
empire  of  Egypt  and  centered  at  Nepata  and 
Meroe.  Widespread  trade  in  gold,  ivory,  precious 
stones,  skins,  wood,  and  works  of  handicraft 
arose.1  The  Negro  began  to  figure  as  the  great 
trader  of  Egypt. 

This  new  wealth  of  Ethiopia  excited  the  cupid- 
ity of  the  Pharaohs  and  led  to  aggression  and  larger 
intercourse,  until  at  last,  when  the  dread  Hyksos 
appeared,  Ethiopia  became  both  a physical  and 
cultural  refuge  for  conquered  Egypt.  The 
legitimate  Pharaohs  moved  to  Thebes,  nearer  the 
1 Hoskins  declares  that  the  arch  had  its  origin  in  Ethiopia. 


ETHIOPIA  AND  EGYPT 


39 


boundaries  of  Ethiopia,  and  from  here,  under 
Negroid  rulers,  Lower  Egypt  was  redeemed. 

The  ensuing  new  empire  witnessed  the  gradual 
incorporation  of  Ethiopia  into  Egypt,  although 
the  darker  kingdom  continued  to  resist.  Both 
mulatto  Pharaohs,  Aahmes  and  Amenhotep  I, 
sent  expeditions  into  Ethiopia,  and  in  the  latter’s 
day  sons  of  the  reigning  Pharaoh  began  to  as- 
sume the  title  of  “Royal  Son  of  Kush”  in  some 
such  way  as  the  son  of  the  King  of  England 
becomes  the  Prince  of  Wales. 

Trade  relations  were  renewed  with  Punt  under 
circumstances  which  lead  us  to  place  that  land 
in  the  region  of  the  African  lakes.  The  Sudanese 
tribes  were  aroused  by  these  and  other  incur- 
sions, until  the  revolts  became  formidable  in 
the  fourteenth  century  before  Christ. 

Egyptian  culture,  however,  gradually  con- 
quered Ethiopia  where  her  armies  could  not,  and 
Egyptian  religion  and  civil  rule  began  to  center 
in  the  darker  kingdom.  When,  therefore,  She- 
sheng  I,  the  Libyan,  usurped  the  throne  of  the 
Pharaohs  in  the  tenth  century  b.c.,  the  Egyptian 
legitimate  dynasty  went  to  Nepata  as  king 
priests  and  established  a theocratic  monarchy. 
Gathering  strength,  the  Ethiopian  kingdom 
under  this  dynasty  expanded  north  about  750 
B.c.  and  for  a century  ruled  all  Egypt. 

The  first  king,  Pankhy,  was  Egyptian  bred 
and  not  noticeably  Negroid,  but  his  successors 
showed  more  and  more  evidence  of  Negro  blood 
— Kashta  the  Kushite,  Shabaka,  Tarharqa,  and 


40 


THE  NEGRO 


Tanutamen.  During  the  century  of  Ethiopian 
rule  a royal  son  was  appointed  to  rule  Egypt, 
just  as  formerly  a royal  Egyptian  had  ruled 
Kush.  In  many  ways  this  Ethiopian  kingdom 
showed  its  Negro  peculiarities:  first,  in  its  wor- 
ship of  distinctly  Sudanese  gods;  secondly,  in 
the  rigid  custom  of  female  succession  in  the  king- 
dom, and  thirdly,  by  the  election  of  kings  from 
the  various  royal  claimants  to  the  throne. 
“It  was  the  heyday  of  the  Negro.  For  the 
greater  part  of  the  century.  . . . Egypt  itself 
was  subject  to  the  blacks,  just  as  in  the  new 
empire  the  Sudan  had  been  subject  to  Egypt.”1 

Egypt  now  began  to  fall  into  the  hands  of 
Asia  and  was  conquered  first  by  the  Assyrians 
and  then  by  the  Persians,  but  the  Ethiopian 
kings  kept  their  independence.  Aspeluta,  whose 
mother  and  sister  are  represented  as  full-blooded 
Negroes,  ruled  from  630  to  600  B.c.  Horsiatef 
(560-525  b.c.)  made  nine  expeditions  against 
the  warlike  tribes  south  of  Meroe,  and  his  suc- 
cessor, Nastosenen  (525-500  b.c.)  was  the  one 
who  repelled  Cambyses.  He  also  removed  the 
capital  from  Nepata  to  Meroe,  although  Nepata 
continued  to  be  the  religious  capital  and  the 
Ethiopian  kings  were  still  crowned  on  its  golden 
throne. 

From  the  fifth  to  the  second  century  b.c.  we 
find  the  wild  Sudanese  tribes  pressing  in  from  the 
west  and  Greek  culture  penetrating  from  the 
east.  King  Arg-Amen  (Ergamenes)  showed 
1 Maciver  and  Wooley:  Areika,  p.  i. 


ETHIOPIA  AND  EGYPT 


41 


strong  Greek  influences  and  at  the  same  time 
began  to  employ  the  Ethiopian  speech  in  writing 
and  used  a new  Ethiopian  alphabet. 

While  the  Ethiopian  kings  were  still  crowned 
at  Nepata,  Meroe  gradually  became  the  real 
capital  and  supported  at  one  time  four  thousand 
artisans  and  two  hundred  thousand  soldiers.  It 
was  here  that  the  famous  Candaces  reigned  as 
queens.  Pliny  tells  us  that  one  Candace  of  the 
time  of  Nero  had  had  forty-four  predecessors  on 
the  throne,  while  another  Candace  figures  in  the 
New  Testament.1 

It  was  probably  this  latter  Candace  who 
warred  against  Rome  at  the  time  of  Augustus 
and  received  unusual  consideration  from  her 
formidable  foe.  The  prestige  of  Ethiopia  at 
this  time  was  considerable  throughout  the 
world.  Pseudo-Callisthenes  tells  an  evidently 
fabulous  story  of  the  visit  of  Alexander  the 
Great  to  Candace,  Queen  of  Meroe,  which  never- 
theless illustrates  her  fame:  Candace  will  not 
let  him  enter  Ethiopia  and  says  he  is  not  to 
scorn  her  people  because  they  are  black,  for  they 
are  whiter  in  soul  than  his  white  folk.  She  sent 
him  gold,  maidens,  parrots,  sphinxes,  and  a crown 
of  emeralds  and  pearls.  She  ruled  eighty  tribes, 
who  were  ready  to  punish  those  who  attacked  her. 

The  Romans  continued  to  have  so  much 
trouble  with  their  Ethiopian  frontier  that  finally, 
when  Semitic  mulattoes  appeared  in  the  east, 
the  Emperor  Diocletian  invited  the  wild  Sudanese 
1 Acts  VIII,  27. 


42 


THE  NEGRO 


tribe  of  Nubians  (Nob ads)  from  the  west  to 
repel  them.  These  Nubians  eventually  em- 
braced Christianity,  and  northern  Ethiopia  came 
to  be  known  in  time  as  Nubia. 

The  Semitic  mulattoes  from  the  east  came 
from  the  highlands  bordering  the  Red  Sea  and 
Asia.  On  both  sides  this  sea  Negro  blood  is 
strongly  in  evidence,  predominant  in  Africa  and 
influential  in  Asia.  Ludolphus,  writing  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  says  that  the  Abyssinians 
“are  generally  black,  which  [color]  they  most 
admire.”  Trade  and  war  united  the  two  shores, 
and  merchants  have  passed  to  and  fro  for  thirty 
centuries. 

In  this  way  Arabian,  Jewish,  Egyptian,  Greek, 
and  Roman  influences  spread  slowly  upon  the 
Negro  foundation.  Early  legendary  history 
declares  that  a queen,  Maqueda,  or  Nikaula 
of  Sheba,  a state  of  Central  Abyssinia,  visited 
Solomon  in  1050  b.c.  and  had  her  son  Menelik 
educated  in  Jerusalem.  This  was  the  supposed 
beginning  of  the  Axumite  kingdom,  the  capital 
of  which,  Axume,  was  a flourishing  center  of 
trade.  Ptolemy  Evergetes  and  his  successors 
did  much  to  open  Abyssinia  to  the  world,  but 
most  of  the  population  of  that  day  was  nomadic. 
In  the  fourth  century  Byzantine  influences  began 
to  be  felt,  and  in  330  St.  Athanasius  of  Alexandria 
consecrated  Fromentius  as  Bishop  of  Ethiopia. 
He  tutored  the  heir  to  the  Abyssinian  kingdom 
and  began  its  gradual  Christianization.  By  the 
early  part  of  the  sixth  century  Abyssinia  was 


ETHIOPIA  AND  EGYPT 


43 


trading  with  India  and  Byzantium  and  was  so 
far  recognized  as  a Christian  country  that  the 
Emperor  Justinian  appealed  to  King  Kaleb  to 
protect  the  Christians  in  southwestern  Arabia. 
Kaleb  conquered  Yemen  in  525  and  held  it 
fifty  years. 

Eventually  a Jewish  princess,  Judith,  usurped 
the  Axumite  throne;  the  Abyssinians  were  ex- 
pelled from  Arabia,  and  a long  period  begins 
when  as  Gibbon  says,  “encompassed  by  the 
enemies  of  their  religion,  the  Ethiopians  slept 
for  nearly  a thousand  years,  forgetful  of  the  world 
by  whom  they  were  forgotten.”  Throughout 
the  middle  ages,  however,  the  legend  of  a great 
Christian  kingdom  hidden  away  in  Africa  per- 
sisted, and  the  search  for  Prester  John  became 
one  of  the  world  quests. 

It  was  the  expanding  power  of  Abyssinia  that 
led  Rome  to  call  in  the  Nubians  from  the  western 
desert.  The  Nubians  had  formed  a strong 
league  of  tribes,  and  as  the  ancient  kingdom  of 
Ethiopia  declined  they  drove  back  the  Abys- 
sinians, who  had  already  established  themselves 
at  Meroe. 

In  the  sixth  century  the  Nubians  were  con- 
verted to  Christianity  by  a Byzantine  priest, 
and  they  immediately  began  to  develop.  A new 
capital,  Dongola,  replaced  Nepata  and  Meroe, 
and  by  the  twelfth  century  churches  and  brick 
dwellings  had  appeared.  As  the  Mohammedan 
flood  pressed  up  the  Nile  valley  it  was  the  Nu- 
bians that  held  it  back  for  two  centuries. 


44 


THE  NEGRO 


Farther  south  other  wild  tribes  pushed  out  oi 
the  Sudan  and  began  a similar  development. 
Chief  among  these  were  the  Fung,  who  fixed  their 
capital  at  Senaar,  at  the  junction  of  the  White 
and  Blue  Nile.  When  the  Mohammedan  flood 
finally  passed  over  Nubia,  the  Fung  diverted  it 
by  declaring  themselves  Moslems.  This  left 
the  Fung  as  the  dominant  power  in  the  fifteenth 
century  from  the  Three  Cataracts  to  Fazogli  and 
from  the  Red  Sea  at  Suakin  to  the  White  Nile. 
Islam  then  swept  on  south  in  a great  circle, 
skirted  the  Great  Lakes,  and  then  curled  back 
to  Somaliland,  completely  isolating  Abyssinia. 

Between  the  thirteenth  and  sixteenth  centu- 
ries the  Egyptian  Sudan  became  a congeries  of 
Mohammedan  kingdoms  with  Arab,  mulatto, 
and  Negro  kings.  Far  to  the  west,  near  Lake 
Chad,  arose  in  1520  the  sultanate  of  Baghirmi, 
which  reached  its  highest  power  in  the  seventh 
century.  This  dynasty  was  overthrown  by  the 
Negroid  Mabas,  who  established  Wadai  to  the 
eastward  about  1640.  South  of  Wadai  lay 
the  'heathen  and  cannibals  of  the  Congo  valley, 
against  which  Islam  never  prevailed.  East  of 
Wadai  and  nearer  the  Nile  lay  the  kindred  state 
of  Darfur,  a Nubian  nation  whose  sultans  reigned 
over  two  hundred  years  and  which  reached  great 
prosperity  in  the  early  seventeenth  century  under 
Soliman  Solon. 

Before  the  Mohammedan  power  reached 
Abyssinia  the  Portuguese  pioneers  had  entered 
the  country  from  the  east  and  begun  to  open  the 


ETHIOPIA  AND  EGYPT 


45 


country  again  to  European  knowledge.  With- 
out doubt,  in  the  centuries  of  silence,  a civiliza- 
tion of  some  height  had  flourished  in  Abyssinia, 
but  all  authentic  records  were  destroyed  by  fire 
in  the  tenth  century.  When  the  Portuguese 
came,  the  older  Axumite  kingdom  had  fallen 
and  had  been  succeeded  by  a number  of  petty 
states. 

The  Sudanese  kingdoms  of  the  Sudan  resisted 
the  power  of  the  Mameluke  beys  in  Egypt,  and 
later  the  power  of  the  Turks  until  the  nineteenth 
century,  when  the  Sudan  was  made  nominally 
a part  of  Egypt.  Continuous  upheaval,  war,  and 
conquest  had  by  this  time  done  their  work,  and 
little  of  ancient  Ethiopian  culture  survived  except 
the  slave  trade. 

The  entrance  of  England  into  Egypt,  after 
the  building  of  the  Suez  Canal,  stirred  up  even- 
tually revolt  in  the  Sudan,  for  political,  economic, 
and  religious  reasons.  Led  by  a Sudanese  Negro, 
Mohammed  Ahmad,  who  claimed  to  be  the 
Messiah  (Mahdi),  the  Sudan  arose  in  revolt  in 
1881,  determined  to  resist  a hated  religion,  for- 
eign rule,  and  interference  with  their  chief  com- 
merce, the  trade  in  slaves.  The  Sudan  was  soon 
aflame,  and  the  able  mulatto  general,  Osman 
Digna,  aided  by  revolt  among  the  heathen  Dinka, 
drove  Egypt  and  England  out  of  the  Sudan  for 
sixteen  years.  It  was  not  until  1898  that  Eng- 
land reentered  the  Sudan  and  in  petty  revenge 
desecrated  the  bones  of  the  brave,  even  if  mis- 
guided, prophet. 


46 


THE  NEGRO 


Meantime  this  Mahdist  revolt  had  delayed 
England’s  designs  on  Abyssinia,  and  the  Italians, 
replacing  her,  attempted  a protectorate.  Mene- 
lik  of  Shoa,  one  of  the  smaller  kingdoms  of 
Abyssinia,  was  a shrewd  man  of  predominantly 
Negro  blood,  and  had  been  induced  to  make  a 
treaty  with  the  Italians  after  King  John  had  been 
killed  by  the  Mahdists.  The  exact  terms  of  the 
treaty  were  disputed,  but  undoubtedly  the 
Italians  tried  by  this  means  to  reduce  Menelik 
to  vassalage.  Menelik  stoutly  resisted,  and  at 
the  great  battle  of  Adua,  one  of  the  decisive 
battles  of  the  modern  world,  the  Abyssinians  on 
March  1,  1896,  inflicted  a crushing  defeat  on  the 
Italians,  killing  four  thousand  of  them  and  cap- 
turing two  thousand  prisoners.  The  empress, 
Taitou,  a full-blooded  Negress,  led  some  of  the 
charges.  By  this  battle  Abyssinia  became  in- 
dependent. 

Such  in  vague  and  general  outline  is  the 
strange  story  of  the  valley  of  the  Nile  — of 
Egypt,  the  motherland  of  human  culture  and 

“That  starr’d  Ethiop  Queen  that  strove 
To  set  her  beauty’s  praise  above 
The  sea  nymphs.” 


CHAPTER  IV 


THE  NIGER  AND  ISLAM 

* The  Arabian  expression  “Bilad  es  Sudan” 
(Land  of  the  Blacks)  was  applied  to  the  whole 
region  south  of  the  Sahara,  from  the  Atlantic 
to  the  Nile.  It  is  a territory  some  thirty- 
five  hundred  miles  by  six  hundred  miles,  con- 
taining two  million  square  miles,  and  has  to-day 
a population  of  perhaps  eighty  million.  It  is 
thus  two-thirds  the  size  of  the  United  States 
and  quite  as  thickly  settled.  In  the  western 
Sudan  the  Niger  plays  the  same  role  as  the  Nile 
in  the  east.  In  this  chapter  we  follow  the  history 
of  the  Niger. 

The  history  of  this  part  of  Africa  was  probably 
something  as  follows:  primitive  man,  entering 
Africa  from  Arabia,  found  the  Great  Lakes, 
spread  in  the  Nile  valley,  and  wandered  west- 
ward to  the  Niger.  Herodotus  tells  of  certain 
youths  who  penetrated  the  desert  to  the  Niger 
and  found  there  a city  of  black  dwarfs.  Succeed- 
ing migrations  of  Negroes  and  Negroids  pushed 
the  dwarfs  gradually  into  the  inhospitable  forests 
and  occupied  the  Sudan,  pushing  on  to  the  At- 
lantic. Here  the  newcomers,  curling  northward, 
met  the  Mediterranean  race  coming  down  across 
47 


48 


THE  NEGRO 


the  western  desert,  while  to  the  southward  the 
Negro  came  to  the  Gulf  of  Guinea  and  the  thick 
forests  of  the  Congo  valley.  Indigenous  civiliza- 
tions arose  on  the  west  coast  in  Yoruba  and 
Benin,  and  contact  of  these  with  the  Mediter- 
ranean race  in  the  desert,  and  with  Egyptian  and 
Arab  from  the  east,  gave  rise  to  centers  of  Negro 
culture  in  the  Sudan  at  Ghana  and  Melle  and  in 
Songhay,  Nupe,  the  Hausa  states,  and  Bornu. 

The  history  of  the  Sudan  thus  leads  us  back 
again  to  Ethiopia,  that  strange  and  ancient 
center  of  world  civilization  whose  inhabitants  in 
the  ancient  world  were  considered  to  be  the  most 
pious  and  the  oldest  of  men.  From  this  center 
the  black  originators  of  African  culture,  and  to 
a large  degree  of  world  culture,  wandered  not 
simply  down  the  Nile,  but  also  westward.  These 
Negroes  developed  the  original  substratum  of 
culture  which  later  influences  modified  but  never 
displaced. 

We  know  that  Egyptian  Pharaohs  in  several 
cases  ventured  into  the  western  Sudan  and  that 
Egyptian  influences  are  distinctly  traceable. 
Greek  and  Byzantine  culture  and  Phoenician  and 
Carthaginian  trade  also  penetrated,  while  Islam 
finally  made  this  whole  land  her  own.  Behind 
all  these  influences,  however,  stood  from  the 
first  an  indigenous  Negro  culture.  The  stone 
figures  of  Sherbro,  the  megaliths  of  Gambia,  the 
art  and  industry  of  the  west  coast  are  all  too 
deep  and  original  evidences  of  civilization  to 
be  merely  importations  from  abroad. 


THE  NIGER  AND  ISLAM 


49 


Nor  was  the  Sudan  the  inert  recipient  of 
foreign  influence  when  it  came.  According  to 
credible  legend,  the  “Great  King”  at  Byzan- 
tium imported  glass,  tin,  silver,  bronze,  cut 
stones,  and  other  treasure  from  the  Sudan.  Em- 
bassies were  sent  and  states  like  Nupe  recognized 
the  suzerainty  of  the  Byzantine  emperor.  The 
people  of  Nupe  especially  were  filled  with  pride 
when  the  Byzantine  people  learned  certain  kinds 
of  work  in  bronze  and  glass  from  them,  and  this 
intercourse  was  only  interrupted  by  the  Moham- 
medan conquest. 

To  this  ancient  culture,  modified  somewhat  by 
Byzantine  and  Christian  influences,  came  Islam. 
It  approached  from  the  northwest,  coming 
stealthily  and  slowly  and  being  handed  on  par- 
ticularly by  the  Mandingo  Negroes.  About 
1000-1200  a.d.  the  situation  was  this:  Ghana  was 
on  the  edge  of  the  desert  in  the  north,  Mandingo- 
land  between  the  Niger  and  the  Senegal  in  the 
south  and  the  western  Sahara,  Djolof  was  in 
the  west  on  the  Senegal,  and  the  Songhay  on  the 
Niger  in  the  center.  The  Mohammedans  came 
chiefly  as  traders  and  found  a trade  already  es- 
tablished. Here  and  there  in  the  great  cities  were 
districts  set  aside  for  these  new  merchants,  and 
the  Mohammedans  gave  frequent  evidence  of 
their  respect  for  these  black  nations. 

Islam  did  not  found  new  states,  but  modified 
and  united  Negro  states  already  ancient;  it 
did  not  initiate  new  commerce,  but  developed 
a widespread  trade  already  established.  It  is, 


50 


THE  NEGRO 


as  Frobenius  says,  “easily  proved  from  chronicles 
written  in  Arabic  that  Islam  was  only  effective  in 
fact  as  a fertilizer  and  stimulant.  The  essential 
point  is  the  resuscitative  and  invigorative  con- 
centration of  Negro  power  in  the  service  of  a new 
era  and  a Moslem  propaganda,  as  well  as  the 
reaction  thereby  produced.  ” 1 

Early  in  the  eighth  century  Islam  had  con- 
quered North  Africa  and  converted  the  Berbers. 
Aided  by  black  soldiers,  the  Moslems  crossed 
into  Spain;  in  the  following  century  Berber  and 
Arab  armies  crossed  the  west  end  of  the  Sahara 
and  came  to  Negroland.  Later  in  the  eleventh 
century  Arabs  penetrated  the  Sudan  and  Cen- 
tral Africa  from  the  east,  filtering  through  the 
Negro  tribes  of  Darfur,  Kanem,  and  neighbor- 
ing regions.  The  Arabs  were  too  nearly  akin  to 
Negroes  to  draw  an  absolute  color  line.  Antar, 
one  of  the  great  pre-Islamic  poets  of  Arabia,  was 
the  son  of  a black  woman,  and  one  of  the  great 
poets  at  the  court  of  Haroun  al  Raschid  was 
black.  In  the  twelfth  century  a learned  Negro 
poet  resided  at  Seville,  and  Sidjilmessa,  the  last 
town  in  Lower  Morocco  toward  the  desert,  was 
founded  in  757  by  a Negro  who  ruled  over  the 
Berber  inhabitants.  Indeed,  many  towns  in  the 
Sudan  and  the  desert  were  thus  ruled,  and  felt 
no  incongruity  in  this  arrangement.  They  say, 
to  be  sure,  that  the  Moors  destroyed  Audhoghast 
because  it  paid  tribute  to  the  black  town  of 
Ghana,  but  this  was  because  the  town  was  hea- 
1 Frobenius:  Voice  of  Africa,  II,  359-360. 


THE  NIGER  AND  ISLAM 


51 


then  and  not  because  it  was  black.  On  the  other 
hand,  there  is  a story  that  a Berber  king  over- 
threw one  of  the  cities  of  the  Sudan  and  all  the 
black  women  committed  suicide,  being  too  proud 
to  allow  themselves  to  fall  into  the  hands  of 
white  men. 

In  the  west  the  Moslems  first  came  into  touch 
with  the  Negro  kingdom  of  Ghana.  Here  large 
quantities  of  gold  were  gathered  in  early  days, 
and  we  have  names  of  seventy-four  rulers  before 
300  a.d.  running  through  twenty-one  genera- 
tions. This  would  take  us  back  approximately 
a thousand  years  to  700  b.c.,  or  about  the  time 
that  Pharaoh  Necho  of  Egypt  sent  out  the 
Phoenician  expedition  which  circumnavigated 
Africa,  and  possibly  before  the  time  when  Hanno, 
the  Carthaginian,  explored  the  west  coast  of 
Africa. 

By  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century  Ghana 
was  the  principal  kingdom  in  the  western  Sudan. 
Already  the  town  had  a native  and  a Mussulman 
quarter,  and  was  built  of  wood  and  stone  with 
surrounding  gardens.  The  king  had  an  army  of 
two  hundred  thousand  and  the  wealth  of  the 
country  was  great.  A century  later  the  king 
had  become  Mohammedan  in  faith  and  had  a 
palace  with  sculptures  and  glass  windows.  The 
great  reason  for  this  development  was  the  desert 
trade.  Gold,  skins,  ivory,  kola  nuts,  gums, 
honey,  wheat,  and  cotton  were  exported,  and  the 
whole  Mediterranean  coast  traded  in  the  Sudan. 
Other  and  lesser  black  kingdoms  like  Tekrou, 
Silla,  and  Masina  surrounded  Ghana. 


52 


THE  NEGRO 


In  the  early  part  of  the  thirteenth  century  the 
prestige  of  Ghana  began  to  fall  before  the  rising 
Mandingan  kingdom  to  the  west.  Melle,  as  it 
was  called,  was  founded  in  1235  and  formed  an 
open  door  for  Moslem  and  Moorish  traders. 
The  new  kingdom,  helped  by  its  expanding  trade, 
began  to  grow,  and  Islam  slowly  surrounded  the 
older  Negro  culture  west,  north,  and  east. 
However,  a great  mass  of  the  older  heathen  cul- 
ture, pushing  itself  upward  from  the  Guinea  coast, 
stood  firmly  against  Islam  down  to  the  nineteenth 
century. 

Steadily  Mohammedanism  triumphed  in  the 
growing  states  which  almost  encircled  the  pro- 
tagonists of  ancient  Atlantic  culture.  Man- 
dingan Melle  eventually  supplanted  Ghana  in 
prestige  and  power,  after  Ghana  had  been  over- 
thrown by  the  heathen  Su  Su  from  the  south. 

The  territory  of  Melle  lay  southeast  of  Ghana 
and  some  five  hundred  miles  north  of  the  Gulf  of 
Guinea.  Its  ldngs  were  known  by  the  title  of 
Mansa,  and  from  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth 
century  to  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  the 
Mellestine,  as  its  dominion  was  called,  was  the 
leading  power  in  the  land  of  the  blacks.  Its 
greatest  king,  Mari  Jalak  (Mansa  Musa),  made 
his  pilgrimage  to  Mecca  in  1324,  with  a caravan 
of  sixty  thousand  persons,  including  twelve 
thousand  young  slaves  gowned  in  figured  cotton 
and  Persian  silk.  He  took  eighty  camel  loads  of 
gold  dust  (worth  about  five  million  dollars)  to 
defray  his  expenses,  and  greatly  impressed  the 
people  of  the  East  with  his  magnificence. 


THE  NIGER  AND  ISLAM 


53 


On  his  return  he  found  that  Timbuktu  had 
been  sacked  by  the  Mossi,  but  he  rebuilt  the 
town  and  filled  the  new  mosque  with  learned 
blacks  from  the  University  of  Fez.  Mansa  Musa 
reigned  twenty -five  years  and  “was  distinguished 
by  his  ability  and  by  the  holiness  of  his  life. 
The  justice  of  his  administration  was  such  that 
the  memory  of  it  still  lives.”  1 The  Mellestine 
preserved  its  preeminence  until  the  beginning 
of  the  sixteenth  century,  when  the  rod  of  Sudan- 
ese empire  passed  to  Songhay,  the  largest  and 
most  famous  of  the  black  empires. 

The  known  history  of  Songhay  covers  a thou- 
sand years  and  three  dynasties  and  centers  in 
the  great  bend  of  the  Niger.  There  were  thirty 
kings  of  the  First  Dynasty,  reigning  from  700 
to  1335.  During  the  reign  of  one  of  these  the 
Songhay  kingdom  became  the  vassal  kingdom 
of  Melle,  then  at  the  height  of  its  glory.  In 
addition  to  this  the  Mossi  crossed  the  valley, 
plundered  Timbuktu  in  1339,  and  separated 
Jenne,  the  original  seat  of  the  Songhay,  from  the 
main  empire.  The  sixteenth  king  was  converted 
to  Mohammedanism  in  1009,  and  after  that 
all  the  Songhay  princes  were  Mohammedans. 
Mansa  Musa  took  two  young  Songhay  princes 
to  the  court  of  Melle  to  be  educated  in  1326. 
These  boys  when  grown  ran  away  and  founded  a 
new  dynasty  in  Songhay,  that  of  the  Sonnis,  in 
1355.  Seventeen  of  these  kings  reigned,  the 
last  and  greatest  being  Sonni  Ah,  who  ascended 
1 Ibn  Khaldun,  quoted  in  Lugard,  p.  128. 


54 


THE  NEGRO 


the  throne  in  1464.  Melle  was  at  this  time 
declining,  other  cities  like  Jenne,  with  its  seven 
thousand  villages,  were  rising,  and  the  Tuaregs 
(Berbers  with  Negro  blood)  had  captured  Tim- 
buktu. 

Sonni  Ali  was  a soldier  and  began  his  career 
with  the  conquest  of  Timbuktu  in  1469.  He 
also  succeeded  in  capturing  Jenne  and  attacked 
the  Mossi  and  other  enemies  on  all  sides.  Finally 
he  concentrated  his  forces  for  the  destruction  of 
Melle  and  subdued  nearly  the  whole  empire  on 
the  west  bend  of  the  Niger.  In  summing  up  Sonni 
Ali’s  military  career  the  chronicle  says  of  him, 
“He  surpassed  all  his  predecessors  in  the  num- 
bers and  valor  of  his  soldiery.  His  conquests 
were  many  and  his  renown  extended  from  the 
rising  to  the  setting  of  the  sun.  If  it  is  the  will 
of  God,  he  will  be  long  spoken  of.”  1 

Sonni  Ali  was  a Songhay  Negro  whose  father 
was  a Berber.  He  was  succeeded  by  a full- 
blooded  black,  Mohammed  Abou  Bekr,  who  had 
been  his  prime  minister.  Mohammed  was  hailed 
as  “Askia”  (usurper)  and  is  best  known  as 
Mohammed  Askia.  He  was  strictly  orthodox 
where  Ali  was  rather  a scoffer,  and  an  organizer 
where  Ali  was  a warrior.  On  his  pilgrimage  to 
Mecca  in  1495  there  was  nothing  of  the  barbaric 
splendor  of  Mansa  Musa,  but  a brilliant  group 
of  scholars  and  holy  men  with  a small  escort  of 
fifteen  hundred  soldiers  and  nine  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars  in  gold.  He  stopped  and  consulted 
1 Quoted  in  Lugard,  p.  180. 


THE  NIGER  AND  ISLAM 


55 


with  scholars  and  politicians  and  studied  matters 
of  taxation,  weights  and  measures,  trade,  religious 
tolerance,  and  manners.  In  Cairo,  where  he  was 
invested  by  the  reigning  caliph  of  Egypt,  he  may 
have  heard  of  the  struggle  of  Europe  for  the 
trade  of  the  Indies,  and  perhaps  of  the  parceling 
of  the  new  world  between  Portugal  and  Spain. 
He  returned  to  the  Sudan  in  1497,  instituted  a 
standing  army  of  slaves,  undertook  a holy  war 
against  the  indomitable  Mossi,  and  finally 
marched  against  the  Hausa.  He  subdued  these 
cities  and  even  imposed  the  rule  of  black  men 
on  the  Berber  town  of  Agades,  a rich  city  of 
merchants  and  artificers  with  stately  mansions. 
In  fine  Askia,  during  his  reign,  conquered  and 
consolidated  an  empire  two  thousand  miles  long 
by  one  thousand  wide  at  its  greatest  diameters; 
a territory  as  large  as  all  Europe.  The  territory 
was  divided  into  four  vice  royalties,  and  the 
system  of  Melle,  with  its  semi-independent  native 
dynasties,  wras  carried  out.  His  empire  extended 
from  the  Atlantic  to  Lake  Chad  and  from  the 
salt  mines  of  Tegazza  and  the  town  of  Augila  in 
the  north  to  the  10th  degree  of  north  latitude 
toward  the  south. 

It  was  a six  months’  journey  across  the  em- 
pire and,  it  is  said,  “ he  was  obeyed  with  as  much 
docility  on  the  farthest  limits  of  the  empire  as  he 
was  in  his  own  palace,  and  there  reigned  every- 
where great  plenty  and  absolute  peace.”  1 The 
University  of  Sankore  became  a center  of  learn- 
1 Es-Sa’di,  quoted  by  Lugard,  p.  199. 


56 


THE  NEGRO 


ing  in  correspondence  with  Egypt  and  North 
Africa  and  had  a swarm  of  black  Sudanese  stu- 
dents. Law,  literature,  grammar,  geography, 
and  surgery  were  studied.  Askia  the  Great 
reigned  thirty-six  years,  and  his  dynasty  con- 
tinued on  the  throne  until  after  the  Moorish 
conquest  in  1591. 

Meanwhile,  to  the  eastward,  two  powerful 
states  appeared.  They  never  disputed  the  mili- 
tary supremacy  of  Songhay,  but  their  industrial 
development  was  marvelous.  The  Hausa  states 
were  formed  by  seven  original  cities,  of  which 
Kano  was  the  oldest  and  Katsena  the  most 
famous.  Their  greatest  leaders,  Mohammed 
Rimpa  and  Ahmadu  Kesoke,  arose  in  the  fifteenth 
and  early  sixteenth  centuries.  The  land  was 
subject  to  the  Songhay,  but  the  cities  became 
industrious  centers  of  smelting,  weaving,  and 
dyeing.  Katsena  especially,  in  the  middle  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  is  described  as  a place 
thirteen  or  fourteen  miles  in  circumference, 
divided  into  quarters  for  strangers,  for  visitors 
from  various  other  states,  and  for  the  different 
trades  and  industries,  as  saddlers,  shoemakers, 
dyers,  etc. 

Beyond  the  Hausa  states  and  bordering  on 
Lake  Chad  was  Bornu.  The  people  of  Bornu  had 
a large  infiltration  of  Berber  blood,  but  were 
predominantly  Negro.  Berber  mulattoes  had 
been  kings  in  early  days,  but  they  were  soon 
replaced  by  black  men.  Under  the  early  kings, 
who  can  be  traced  back  to  the  third  century, 


THE  NIGER  AND  ISLAM 


57 


these  people  had  ruled  nearly  all  the  territory 
between  the  Nile  and  Lake  Chad.  The  country 
was  known  as  Kanem,  and  the  pagan  dynasty  of 
Dugu  reigned  there  from  the  middle  of  the  ninth 
to  the  end  of  the  eleventh  century.  Mohamme- 
danism was  introduced  from  Egypt  at  the  end  of 
the  eleventh  century,  and  under  the  Mohamme- 
dan kings  Kanem  became  one  of  the  first  powers 
of  the  Sudan.  By  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century 
the  armies  of  Kanem  were  very  powerful  and  its 
rulers  were  known  as  “Kings  of  Kanem  and 
Lords  of  Bornu.”  In  the  thirteenth  century  the 
kings  even  dared  to  invade  the  southern  country 
down  toward  the  valley  of  the  Congo. 

Meantime  great  things  were  happening  in  the 
world  beyond  the  desert,  the  ocean,  and  the 
Nile.  Arabian  Mohammedanism  had  succumbed 
to  the  wild  fanaticism  of  the  Seljukian  Turks. 
These  new  conquerors  were  not  only  firmly 
planted  at  the  gates  of  Vienna,  but  had  swept 
the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  and  sent  all 
Europe  scouring  the  seas  for  their  lost  trade 
connections  with  the  riches  of  India.  Religious 
zeal,  fear  of  conquest,  and  commercial  greed  in- 
flamed Europe  against  the  Mohammedan  and 
led  to  the  discovery  of  a new  world,  the  riches  of 
which  poured  first  on  Spain.  Oppression  of  the 
Moors  followed,  and  in  1502  they  were  driven 
back  into  Africa,  despoiled  and  humbled.  Here 
the  Spaniards  followed  and  harassed  them  and 
here  the  Turks,  fighting  the  Christians,  captured 
the  Mediterranean  ports  and  cut  the  Moors  off 


58 


THE  NEGRO 


permanently  from  Europe.  In  the  slow  years  that 
followed,  huddled  in  Northwest  Africa,  they 
became  a decadent  people  and  finally  cast  their 
eyes  toward  Negroland. 

The  Moors  in  Morocco  had  come  to  look  upon 
the  Sudan  as  a gold  mine,  and  knew  that  the 
Sudan  was  especially  dependent  upon  salt.  In 
1545  Morocco  claimed  the  principal  salt  mines  at 
Tegazza,  but  the  reigning  Askia  refused  to  recog- 
nize the  claim. 

When  the  Sultan  Elmansour  came  to  the 
throne  of  Morocco,  he  increased  the  efficiency 
of  his  army  by  supplying  it  with  fire  arms  and 
cannon.  Elmansour  determined  to  attack  the 
Sudan  and  sent  four  hundred  men  under  Pasha 
Djouder,  who  left  Morocco  in  1590.  The 
Songhay,  with  their  bows  and  arrows,  were  help- 
less against  powder  and  shot,  and  they  were 
defeated  at  Tenkadibou  April  12,  1591.  Askia 
Ishak,  the  king,  offered  terms,  and  Djouder  Pasha 
referred  them  to  Morocco.  The  sultan,  angry  with 
his  general’s  delay,  deposed  him  and  sent  an- 
other, who  crushed  and  treacherously  murdered 
the  king  and  set  up  a puppet.  Thereafter  there 
were  two  Askias,  one  under  the  Moors  at  Tim- 
buktu and  one  who  maintained  himself  in  the 
Hausa  states,  which  the  Moors  could  not  subdue. 
Anarchy  reigned  in  Songhay.  The  Moors  tried 
to  put  down  disorder  with  a high  hand,  drove 
out  and  murdered  the  distinguished  men  of 
Timbuktu,  and  as  a result  let  loose  a riot  of 
robbery  and  decadence  throughout  the  Sudan. 


THE  NIGER  AND  ISLAM 


59 


Pasha  now  succeeded  pasha  with  revolt  and  mis- 
rule until  in  1612  the  soldiers  elected  their  own 
pasha  and  deliberately  shut  themselves  up  in  the 
Sudan  by  cutting  off  approach  from  the  north. 

Hausaland  and  Bornu  were  still  open  to  Tur- 
kish and  Mohammedan  influence  from  the  east, 
and  the  Gulf  of  Guinea  to  the  slave  trade  from 
the  south,  but  the  face  of  the  finest  Negro  civiliza- 
tion the  modern  world  had  ever  produced  was 
veiled  from  Europe  and  given  to  the  defilement 
of  wild  Moorish  soldiers.  In  1623  it  is  written 
“excesses  of  every  kind  are  now  committed  un- 
checked by  the  soldiery,”  and  “the  country  is 
profoundly  convulsed  and  oppressed.” 1 The 
Tuaregs  marched  down  from  the  desert  and 
deprived  the  Moors  of  many  of  the  principal 
towns.  The  rest  of  the  empire  of  the  Songhay 
was  by  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  divided 
among  separate  Moorish  chiefs,  who  bought 
supplies  from  the  Negro  peasantry  and  were 
“at  once  the  vainest,  proudest,  and  perhaps  the 
most  bigoted,  ferocious,  and  intolerant  of  all  the 
nations  of  the  south.”  2 They  lived  a nomadic 
life,  plundering  the  Negroes.  To  such  depths 
did  the  mighty  Songhay  fall. 

As  the  Songhay  declined  a new  power  arose  in 
the  nineteenth  century,  the  Fula.  The  Fula, 
who  vary  in  race  from  Berber  mulattoes  to 
full-blooded  Negroes,  may  be  the  result  of  a 
westward  migration  of  some  people  like  the 

1 Lugard,  p.  378. 

1 Mungo  Park,  quoted  in  Lugard,  p.  374. 


60 


THE  NEGRO 


“Leukosethiopi”  of  Pliny,  or  they  may  have 
arisen  from  the  migration  of  Berber  mulattoes  in 
the  western  oases,  driven  south  by  Romans  and 
Arabs. 

These  wandering  herdsmen  lived  on  the  Senegal 
River  and  the  ocean  in  very  early  times  and 
were  not  heard  of  until  the  nineteenth  century. 
By  this  time  they  had  changed  to  a Negro  or 
dark  mulatto  people  and  lived  scattered  in  small 
communities  between  the  Atlantic  and  Darfur. 
They  were  without  political  union  or  national 
sentiment,  but  were  all  Mohammedans.  Then 
came  a sudden  change,  and  led  by  a religious  fa- 
natic, these  despised  and  persecuted  people 
became  masters  of  the  central  Sudan.  They 
were  the  ones  who  at  last  broke  down  that  great 
wedge  of  resisting  Atlantic  culture,  after  it  had 
been  undermined  and  disintegrated  by  the 
American  slave  trade. 

Thus  Islam  finally  triumphed  in  the  Sudan  and 
the  ancient  culture  combined  with  the  new.  In 
the  Sudan  to-day  one  may  find  evidences  of 
the  union  of  two  classes  of  people.  The  rep- 
resentatives of  the  older  civilization  dwell  as 
peasants  in  small  communities,  carrying  on  in- 
dustries and  speaking  a large  number  of  different 
languages.  With  them  or  above  them  is  the 
ruling  Mohammedan  caste,  speaking  four  main 
languages:  Mandingo,  Hausa,  Fula,  and  Arabic. 
These  latter  form  the  state  builders.  Negro 
blood  predominates  among  both  classes,  but 
naturally  there  is  more  Berber  blood  among  the 
Mohammedan  invaders. 


THE  NIGER  AND  ISLAM 


61 


Europe  during  the  middle  ages  had  some  knowl- 
edge of  these  movements  in  the  Sudan  and 
Africa.  Melle  and  Songhay  appear  on  medieval 
maps.  In  literature  we  have  many  allusions: 
the  mulatto  king,  Feirifis,  was  one  of  Wolfram 
von  Eschenbach’s  heroes;  Prester  John  furnished 
endless  lore;  Othello,  the  warrior,  and  the  black 
king  represented  by  medieval  art  as  among  the 
three  wise  men,  and  the  various  black  Virgin 
Marys’  all  show  legendary  knowledge  of  what 
African  civilization  was  at  that  time  doing. 

It  is  a curious  commentary  on  modern  prejudice 
that  most  of  this  splendid  history  of  civilization 
and  uplift  is  unknown  to-day,  and  men  confi- 
dently assert  that  Negroes  have  no  history. 


CHAPTER  V 

GUINEA  AND  CONGO 

One  of  the  great  cities  of  the  Sudan  was  Jenne. 
The  chronicle  says  “that  its  markets  are  held 
every  day  of  the  week  and  its  populations  are  very 
enormous.  Its  seven  thousand  villages  are  so 
near  to  one  another  that  the  chief  of  Jenne  has 
no  need  of  messengers.  If  he  wishes  to  send  a 
note  to  Lake  Dibo,  for  instance,  it  is  cried  from 
the  gate  of  the  town  and  repeated  from  village  to 
village,  by  which  means  it  reaches  its  destination 
almost  instantly.”  1 

From  the  name  of  this  city  we  get  the  modern 
name  Guinea,  which  is  used  to-day  to  designate 
the  country  contiguous  to  the  great  gulf  of  that 
name  — a territory  often  referred  to  in  general  as 
West  Africa.  Here,  reaching  from  the  mouth  of 
the  Gambia  to  the  mouth  of  the  Niger,  is  a coast 
of  six  hundred  miles,  where  a marvelous  drama  of 
world  history  has  been  enacted.  The  coast  and 
its  hinterland  comprehends  many  well-known 
names.  First  comes  ancient  Guinea,  then,  mod- 
ern Sierra  Leone  and  Liberia;  then  follow  the 
various  “coasts”  of  ancient  traffic  — the  grain, 
ivory,  gold,  and  slave  coasts  — with  the  adjoining 
1 Quoted  in  DuBois:  Timbuktu. 

62 


GUINEA  AND  CONGO 


63 


territories  of  Ashanti,  Dahomey,  Lagos,  and 
Benin,  and  farther  back  such  tribal  and  territo- 
rial names  as  those  of  the  Mandingoes,  Yorubas, 
the  Mossi,  Nupe,  Borgu,  and  others. 

Recent  investigation  makes  it  certain  that  an 
ancient  civilization  existed  on  this  coast  which 
may  have  gone  back  as  far  as  three  thousand 
years  before  Christ.  Frobenius,  perhaps  fanci- 
fully, identified  this  African  coast  with  the  Atlan- 
tis of  the  Greeks  and  as  part  of  that  great  western 
movement  in  human  culture,  “ beyond  the  pillars 
of  Hercules,”  which  thirteen  centuries  before 
Christ  strove  with  Egypt  and  the  East.  It  is,  at 
any  rate,  clear  that  ancient  commerce  reached 
down  the  west  coast.  The  Phoenicians,  600  b.c., 
and  the  Carthaginians,  a century  or  more  later, 
record  voyages,  and  these  may  have  been  at- 
tempted revivals  of  still  more  ancient  inter- 
course. 

These  coasts  at  some  unknown  prehistoric 
period  were  peopled  from  the  Niger  plateau 
toward  the  north  and  west  by  the  black  West 
African  type  of  Negro,  while  along  the  west  end 
of  the  desert  these  Negroes  mingled  with  the 
Berbers,  forming  various  Negroid  races. 

Movement  and  migration  is  evident  along  this 
coast  in  ancient  and  modern  times.  The  Yoruba- 
Benin-Dahomey  peoples  were  among  the  earliest 
arrivals,  with  their  remarkable  art  and  industry, 
which  places  them  in  some  lines  of  technique 
abreast  with  the  modern  world.  Behind  them 
came  the  Mossi  from  the  north,  and  many  other 


64 


THE  NEGRO 


peoples  in  recent  days  have  filtered  through, 
like  the  Limba  and  Temni  of  Sierra  Leone  and 
the  Agni-Ashanti,  who  moved  from  Borgu  some 
two  thousand  years  ago  to  the  Gold  and  Ivory 
coasts. 

We  have  already  noted  in  the  main  the  history 
of  black  men  along  the  wonderful  Niger  and 
seen  how,  pushing  up  from  the  Gulf  of  Guinea, 
a powerful  wedge  of  ancient  culture  held  back 
Islam  for  a thousand  years,  now  victorious,  now 
stubbornly  disputing  every  inch  of  retreat.  The 
center  of  this  culture  lay  probably,  in  oldest  time, 
above  the  Bight  of  Benin,  along  the  Slave  Coast, 
and  reached  east,  west,  and  north.  We  trace  it 
to-day  not  only  in  the  remarkable  tradition  of 
the  natives,  but  in  stone  monuments,  architec- 
ture, industrial  and  social  organization,  and 
works  of  art  in  bronze,  glass,  and  terra  cotta. 

Benin  art  has  been  practiced  without  interrup- 
tion for  centuries,  and  Von  Luschan  says  that  it 
is  “of  extraordinary  significance  that  by  the 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  a local  and 
monumental  art  had  been  learned  in  Benin  which 
in  many  respects  equaled  European  art  and 
developed  a technique  of  the  very  highest  accom- 
plishment.” 1 

Summing  up  Yoruban  civilization,  Frobenius 
concluded  that  “the  technical  summit  of  that 
civilization  was  reached  in  the  terra-cotta  in- 
dustry, and  that  the  most  important  achieve- 

1 Von  Luschan:  Verhandlungen  der  berliner  Getellschaft 

fur  Anthropologic,  etc.,  1898. 


GUINEA  AND  CONGO 


65 


ments  in  art  were  not  expressed  in  stone,  but  in 
fine  clay  baked  in  the  furnace;  that  hollow  casting 
was  thoroughly  known,  too,  and  practiced  by 
these  people;  that  iron  was  mainly  used  for 
decoration;  that,  whatever  their  purpose,  they 
kept  their  glass  beads  in  stoneware  urns  within 
their  own  locality,  and  that  they  manufactured 
both  earthen  and  glass  ware;  that  the  art  of 
weaving  was  highly  developed  among  them; 
that  the  stone  monuments,  it  is  true,  show  some 
dexterity  in  handling  and  are  so  far  instructive, 
but  in  other  respects  evidence  a cultural  condi- 
tion insufficiently  matured  to  grasp  the  utility 
of  stone  monumental  material;  and,  above  all, 
that  the  then  great  and  significant  idea  of  the 
universe  as  imaged  in  the  Templum  was  current 
in  those  days.”  1 

Effort  has  naturally  been  made  to  ascribe 
this  civilization  to  white  people.  First  it  was 
ascribed  to  Portuguese  influence,  but  much  of 
it  is  evidently  older  than  the  Portuguese  dis- 
covery. Egypt  and  India  have  been  evoked 
and  Greece  and  Carthage.  But  all  these  explana- 
tions are  far-fetched.  If  ever  a people  exhibited 
unanswerable  evidence  of  indigenous  civiliza- 
tion, it  is  the  west-coast  Africans.  Undoubtedly 
they  adapted  much  that  came  to  them,  utilized 
new  ideas,  and  grew  from  contact.  But  their 
art  and  culture  is  Negro  through  and  through. 

Yoruba  forms  one  of  the  three  city  groups  of 
West  Africa;  another  is  around  Timbuktu,  and  a 
1 Frobenius:  Voice  of  Africa,  Vol.  I. 


66 


THE  NEGRO 


third  in  the  Hausa  states.  The  Timbuktu  cities 
have  from  five  to  fifteen  hundred  towns,  while  the 
Yoruba  cities  have  one  hundred  and  fifty  thou- 
sand inhabitants  and  more.  The  Hausa  cities 
are  many  of  them  important,  but  few  are  as  large 
as  the  Yoruba  cities  and  they  lie  farther  apart. 
All  three  centers,  however,  are  connected  with 
the  Niger,  and  the  group  nearest  the  coast  — 
that  is,  the  Yoruba  cities  — has  the  greatest 
numbers  of  towns,  the  most  developed  architec- 
tural styles,  and  the  oldest  institutions. 

The  Yoruba  cities  are  not  only  different  from 
the  Sudanese  in  population,  but  in  their  social 
relations.  The  Sudanese  cities  were  influenced 
from  the  desert  and  the  Mediterranean,  and 
form  nuclei  of  larger  surrounding  monarchial 
states.  The  Yoruba  cities,  on  the  other  hand, 
remained  comparatively  autonomous  organiza- 
tions down  to  modern  times,  and  their  relative 
importance  changed  from  time  to  time  without 
developing  an  imperialistic  idea  or  subordinating 
the  group  to  one  overpowering  city. 

This  social  and  industrial  state  of  the  Yorubas 
formerly  spread  and  wielded  great  influence. 
We  find  Yoruba  reaching  out  and  subduing  states 
like  Nupe  toward  the  northward.  But  the  in- 
dustrial democracy  and  city  autonomy  of  Yoruba 
lent  itself  indifferently  to  conquest,  and  the 
state  fell  eventually  a victim  to  the  fanatical 
Fula  Mohammedans  and  was  made  a part  of 
the  modern  sultanate  of  Gando. 

West  of  Yoruba  on  the  lower  courses  of  the 


GUINEA  AND  CONGO 


67 


Niger  is  Benin,  an  ancient  state  which  in  1897 
traced  its  twenty-three  kings  back  one  thousand 
years;  some  legends  even  named  a line  of  sixty 
kings.  It  seems  probable  that  Benin  developed 
the  imperial  idea  and  once  extended  its  rule  into 
the  Congo  valley.  Later  and  also  to  the  west  of 
the  Yoruba  come  two  states  showing  a fiercer 
and  ruder  culture,  Dahomey  and  Ashanti.  The 
state  of  Dahomey  was  founded  by  Tacondomi 
early  in  the  seventeenth  century,  and  developed 
into  a fierce  and  bloody  tyranny  with  wholesale 
murder.  The  king  had  a body  of  two  thousand 
to  five  thousand  Amazons  renowned  for  their 
bravery  and  armed  with  rifles.  The  kingdom 
was  overthrown  by  the  French  in  1892-93. 
Under  Sai  Tutu,  Ashanti  arose  to  power  in  the 
seventeenth  century.  A military  aristocracy  with 
cruel  blood  sacrifices  was  formed.  By  1816  the 
king  had  at  his  disposal  two  hundred  thousand 
soldiers.  The  Ashanti  power  was  crushed  by  the 
English  in  the  war  of  1873-74. 

In  these  states  and  in  later  years  in  Benin  the 
whole  character  of  west-coast  culture  seems  to 
change.  In  place  of  the  Yoruban  culture,  with 
its  city  democracy,  its  elevated  religious  ideas, 
its  finely  organized  industry,  and  its  noble  art, 
came  Ashanti  and  Dahomey.  What  was  it 
that  changed  the  character  of  the  west  coast 
from  this  to  the  orgies  of  war  and  blood  sacrifice 
which  we  read  of  later  in  these  lands? 

There  can  be  but  one  answer:  the  slave  trade. 
Not  simply  the  sale  of  men,  but  an  organized 


68 


THE  NEGRO 


traffic  of  such  proportions  and  widely  organized 
ramifications  as  to  turn  the  attention  and  ener- 
gies of  men  from  nearly  all  other  industries,  en- 
courage war  and  all  the  cruelest  passions  of  war, 
and  concentrate  this  traffic  in  precisely  that  part 
of  Africa  farthest  from  the  ancient  Mediterra- 
nean lines  of  trade. 

We  need  not  assume  that  the  cultural  change 
was  sudden  or  absolute.  Ancient  Yoruba  had 
the  cruelty  of  a semi-civilized  land,  but  it  was 
not  dominant  or  tyrannical.  Modern  Benin  and 
Dahomey  showed  traces  of  skill,  culture,  and 
industry  along  with  inexplicable  cruelty  and 
bloodthirstiness.  But  it  was  the  slave  trade  that 
turned  the  balance  and  set  these  lands  back- 
ward. Dahomey  was  the  last  word  in  a series  of 
human  disasters  which  began  with  the  defeat 
of  the  Askias  at  Tenkadibou.1 

From  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  to  the  last 
half  of  the  nineteenth  centuries  the  American 
slave  trade  centered  in  Guinea  and  devastated 
the  coast  morally,  socially,  and  physically. 
European  rum  and  fire  arms  were  traded  for 
human  beings,  and  it  was  not  until  1787  that  any 
measures  were  taken  to  counteract  this  terrible 
scourge.  In  that  year  the  idea  arose  of  repa- 
triating stolen  Negroes  on  that  coast  and  estab- 
lishing civilized  centers  to  supplant  the  slave 
trade.  About  four  hundred  Negroes  from  Eng- 
land were  sent  to  Sierra  Leone,  to  whom  the 
promoters  considerately  added  sixty  white  prosti- 
1 Cf.  p.  58. 


GUINEA  AND  CONGO 


69 


tutes  as  wives.  The  climate  on  the  low  coast, 
however,  was  so  deadly  that  new  recruits  were 
soon  needed.  An  American  Negro,  Thomas 
Peters,  who  had  served  as  sergeant  under  Sir 
Henry  Clinton  in  the  British  army  in  America, 
went  to  England  seeking  an  allotment  of  land 
for  his  fellows.  The  Sierra  Leone  Company  wel- 
comed him  and  offered  free  passage  and  land  in 
Sierra  Leone  to  the  Negroes  of  Nova  Scotia. 
As  a result  fifteen  vessels  sailed  with  eleven  hun- 
dred and  ninety  Negroes  in  1792.  Arriving  in 
Africa,  they  found  the  chief  white  man  in  con- 
trol there  so  drunk  that  he  soon  died  of  delirium 
tremens.  John  Clarkson,  however,  brother  of 
Thomas  Clarkson,  the  abolitionist,  eventually 
took  the  lead,  founded  Freetown,  and  the  colony 
began  its  checkered  career.  In  1896  the  colony 
was  saved  from  insurrection  by  the  exiled  Ma- 
roon Negroes  from  Jamaica.  After  1833,  when 
emancipation  in  English  colonies  took  place,  se- 
verer measures  against  the  slave  trade  was  pos- 
sible and  the  colony  began  to  grow.  To-day  its 
imports  and  exports  amount  to  fifteen  million 
dollars  a year. 

Liberia  was  a similar  American  experiment. 
In  1816  American  philanthropists  decided  that 
slavery  was  bound  to  die  out,  but  that  the  prob- 
lem lay  in  getting  rid  of  the  freed  Negroes,  of 
which  there  were  then  two  hundred  thousand  in 
the  United  States.  Accordingly  the  American 
Colonization  Society  was  proposed  this  year 
and  founded  January  1,  1817,  with  Bushrod 


70 


THE  NEGRO 


Washington  as  President.  It  was  first  thought  to 
encourage  migration  to  Sierra  Leone,  and  eighty- 
eight  Negroes  were  sent,  but  they  were  not  wel- 
comed. As  a result  territory  was  bought  in  the 
present  confines  of  Liberia,  December  15,  1821, 
and  colonists  began  to  arrive.  A little  later  an 
African  depot  for  recaptured  slaves  taken  in  the 
contraband  slave  trade,  provided  for  in  the  Act 
of  1819,  was  established  and  an  agent  was  sent 
to  Africa  to  form  a settlement.  Gradually  this 
settlement  was  merged  with  the  settlement  of 
the  Colonization  Society,  and  from  this  union 
Liberia  was  finally  evolved. 

The  last  white  governor  of  Liberia  died  in 
1841  and  was  succeeded  by  the  first  colored 
governor,  Joseph  J.  Roberts,  a Virginian.  The 
total  population  in  1843  was  about  twenty-seven 
hundred  and  ninety,  and  with  this  as  a beginning 
in  1847  Governor  Roberts  declared  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  state.  The  recognition  of  Liberian 
independence  by  all  countries  except  the  United 
States  followed  in  1849.  The  United  States,  not 
wishing  to  receive  a Negro  minister,  did  not  recog- 
nize Liberia  until  1862. 

No  sooner  was  the  independence  of  Liberia 
announced  than  England  and  France  began  a 
long  series  of  aggressions  to  limit  her  territory 
and  sovereignty.  Considerable  territory  was 
lost  by  treaty,  and  in  the  effort  to  get  capital 
to  develop  the  rest,  Liberia  was  saddled  with 
a debt  of  four  hundred  thousand  dollars,  of  which 
she  received  less  than  one  hundred  thousand 


GUINEA  AND  CONGO 


71 


dollars  in  actual  cash.  Finally  the  Liberians 
turned  to  the  United  States  for  capital  and  pro- 
tection. As  a result  the  Liberian  customs  have 
been  put  under  international  control  and  Major 
Charles  Young,  the  ranking  Negro  officer  in 
the  United  States  army,  with  several  colored  as- 
sistants, has  been  put  in  charge  of  the  making  of 
roads  and  drilling  a constabulary  to  keep  order 
in  the  interior. 

To-day  Liberia  has  an  area  of  forty  thousand 
square  miles,  about  three  hundred  and  fifty 
miles  of  coast  fine,  and  an  estimated  total  popu- 
lation of  two  million  of  which  fifty  thousand  are 
civilized.  The  revenue  amounted  in  1913  to 
$531,500.  The  imports  in  1912  were  $1,667,857 
and  the  exports  $1,199,152.  The  latter  con- 
sisted chiefly  of  rubber,  palm  oil  and  kernels, 
coffee,  piassava  fiber,  ivory,  ginger,  camwood, 
and  arnotto. 

Perhaps  Liberia’s  greatest  citizen  was  the  late 
Edward  Wilmot  Blyden,  who  migrated  in  early 
life  from  the  Danish  West  Indies  and  became 
a prophet  of  the  renaissance  of  the  Negro  race. 

Turning  now  from  Guinea  we  pass  down  the 
west  coast.  In  1482  Diego  Cam  of  Portugal, 
sailing  this  coast,  set  a stone  at  the  mouth  of  a 
great  river  which  he  called  “The  Mighty,”  but 
which  eventually  came  to  be  known  by  the  name 
of  the  powerful  Negro  kingdom  through  which 
it  flowed  — the  Congo. 

We  must  think  of  the  valley  of  the  Congo  with 
its  intricate  interlacing  of  water  routes  and  jungle 


72 


THE  NEGRO 


of  forests  as  a vast  caldron  shut  away  at  first 
from  the  African  world  by  known  and  unknown 
physical  hindrances.  Then  it  was  penetrated  by 
the  tiny  red  dwarfs  and  afterward  horde  after 
horde  of  tall  black  men  swirled  into  the  valley 
like  a maelstrom,  moving  usually  from  north  to 
east  and  from  south  to  west. 

The  Congo  valley  became,  therefore,  the  center 
of  the  making  of  what  we  know  to-day  as  the 
Bantu  nations.  They  are  not  a unified  people, 
but  a congeries  of  tribes  of  considerable  physical 
diversity,  united  by  the  compelling  bond  of 
language  and  other  customs  imposed  on  the 
conquered  by  invading  conquerors. 

The  history  of  these  invasions  we  must  to-day 
largely  imagine.  Between  two  and  three  thou- 
sand years  ago  the  wilder  tribes  of  Negroes  began 
to  move  out  of  the  region  south  or  southeast  of 
Lake  Chad.  This  was  always  a land  of  shadows 
and  legends,  where  fearful  cannibals  dwelt  and 
where  no  Egyptian  or  Ethiopian  or  Sudanese 
armies  dared  to  go.  It  is  possible,  however, 
that  pressure  from  civilization  in  the  Nile  valley 
and  rising  culture  around  Lake  Chad  was  at  this 
time  reenforced  by  expansion  of  the  Yoruba- 
Benin  culture  on  the  west  coast.  Perhaps,  too, 
developing  culture  around  the  Great  Lakes  in 
the  east  beckoned  or  the  riotous  fertility  of  the 
Congo  valleys  became  known.  At  any  rate  the 
movement  commenced,  now  by  slow  stages,  now 
in  wild  forays.  There  may  have  been  a pre- 
liminary movement  from  east  to  west  to  the  Gulf 


GUINEA  AND  CONGO 


73 


of  Guinea.  The  main  movement,  however,  was 
eastward,  skirting  the  Congo  forests  and  passing 
down  by  the  Victoria  Nyanza  and  Lake  Tangan- 
yika. Here  two  paths  beckoned:  the  lakes  and 
the  sea  to  the  east,  the  Congo  to  the  west.  A 
great  stream  of  men  swept  toward  the  ocean 
and,  dividing,  turned  northward  and  fought  its 
way  down  the  Nile  valley  and  into  the  Abys- 
sinian highlands;  another  branch  turned  south 
and  approached  the  Zambesi,  where  we  shall 
meet  it  again. 

Another  horde  of  invaders  turned  westward 
and  entered  the  valley  of  the  Congo  in  three 
columns.  The  northern  column  moved  along 
the  Lualaba  and  Congo  rivers  to  the  Cameroons; 
the  second  column  became  the  industrial  and 
state-building  Luba  and  Lunda  peoples  in  the 
southern  Congo  valley  and  Angola;  while  the 
third  column  moved  into  Damaraland  and 
mingled  with  Bushman  and  Hottentot. 

In  the  Congo  valley  the  invaders  settled  in 
village  and  plain,  absorbed  such  indigenous  in- 
habitants as  they  found  or  drove  them  deeper 
into  the  forest,  and  immediately  began  to  develop 
industry  and  political  organization.  They  became 
skilled  agriculturists,  raising  in  some  localities 
a profusion  of  cereals,  fruit,  and  vegetables  such 
as  manioc,  maize,  yams,  sweet  potatoes,  ground 
nuts,  sorghum,  gourds,  beans,  peas,  bananas, 
and  plantains.  Everywhere  they  showed  skill  in 
mining  and  the  welding  of  iron,  copper,  and  other 
metals.  They  made  weapons,  wire  and  ingots. 


74 


THE  NEGRO 


cloth,  and  pottery,  and  a widespread  system  of 
trade  arose.  Some  tribes  extracted  rubber  from 
the  talamba  root;  others  had  remarkable  breeds 
of  fowl  and  cattle,  and  still  others  divided  their 
people  by  crafts  into  farmers,  smiths,  boat  build- 
ers, warriors,  cabinet  makers,  armorers,  and 
speakers.  Women  here  and  there  took  part  in 
public  assemblies  and  were  rulers  in  some  cases. 
Large  towns  were  built,  some  of  which  required 
hours  to  traverse  from  end  to  end. 

Many  tribes  developed  intelligence  of  a high 
order.  Wissmann  called  the  Ba  Luba  “a  nation 
of  thinkers.”  Bateman  found  them  “thoroughly 
and  unimpeachably  honest,  brave  to  foolhardi- 
ness, and  faithful  to  each  other  and  to  their 
superiors.”  One  of  their  kings,  Calemba,  “a 
really  princely  prince,”  Bateman  says  would 
“amongst  any  people  be  a remarkable  and  in- 
deed in  many  respects  a magnificent  man.”  1 

These  beginnings  of  human  culture  were, 
however,  peculiarly  vulnerable  to  invading  hosts 
of  later  comers.  There  were  no  natural  protect- 
ing barriers  like  the  narrow  Nile  valley  or  the 
Kong  mountains  or  the  forests  below  Lake  Chad. 
Once  the  pathways  to  the  valleys  were  open  and 
for  hundreds  of  years  the  newcomers  kept  arriv- 
ing, especially  from  the  welter  of  tribes  south  of 
the  Sudan  and  west  of  the  Nile,  which  rising 
culture  beyond  kept  in  unrest  and  turmoil. 

Against  these  intruders  there  was  but  one  de- 
fense, the  State.  State  building  was  thus  forced 
1 Keane:  Africa,  II,  117-118. 


GUINEA  AND  CONGO 


75 


on  the  Congo  valley.  How  early  it  started  we 
cannot  say,  but  when  the  Portuguese  arrived  in 
the  fifteenth  century,  there  had  existed  for  cen- 
turies a large  state  among  the  Ba-Congo,  with 
its  capital  at  the  city  now  known  as  San  Salvador. 

The  Negro  Mfumu,  or  emperor,  was  eventually 
induced  to  accept  Christianity.  His  sons  and 
many  young  Negroes  of  high  birth  were  taken 
to  Portugal  to  be  educated.  There  several  were 
raised  to  the  Catholic  priesthood  and  one  be- 
came bishop;  others  distinguished  themselves 
at  the  universities.  Thus  suddenly  there  arose 
a Catholic  kingdom  south  of  the  valley  of  the 
Congo,  which  lasted  three  centuries,  but  was 
partially  overthrown  by  invading  barbarians 
from  the  interior  in  the  seventeenth  century. 
A king  of  Congo  still  reigns  as  pensioner  of 
Portugal,  and  on  the  coast  to-day  are  the  re- 
mains of  the  kingdom  in  the  civilized  blacks  and 
mulattoes,  who  are  intelligent  traders  and  boat 
builders. 

Meantime  the  Luba-Lunda  people  to  the 
eastward  founded  Kantanga  and  other  states, 
and  in  the  sixteenth  century  the  larger  and  more 
ambitious  realm  of  the  Mwata  Yanvo.  The  last 
of  the  fourteen  riders  of  this  line  was  feudal  lord 
of  about  three  hundred  chiefs,  who  paid  him 
tribute  in  ivory,  skins,  corn,  cloth,  and  salt. 
His  territory  included  about  one  hundred  thou- 
sand square  miles  and  two  million  or  more  in- 
habitants. Eventually  this  state  became  tom 
by  internal  strife  and  revolt,  especially  by  at- 


76 


THE  NEGRO 


tacks  from  the  south  across  the  Congo-Zambesi 
divide. 

Farther  north,  among  the  Ba-Lolo  and  the 
Ba-Songo,  the  village  policy  persisted  and  the 
cannibals  of  the  northeast  pressed  down  on  the 
more  settled  tribes.  The  result  was  a curious 
blending  of  war  and  industry,  artistic  tastes  and 
savage  customs. 

The  organized  slave  trade  of  the  Arabs  pene- 
trated the  Congo  valley  in  the  sixteenth  century 
and  soon  was  aiding  all  the  forces  of  unrest  and 
turmoil.  Industry  was  deranged  and  many 
tribes  forced  to  take  refuge  in  caves  and  other 
hiding  places. 

Here,  as  on  the  west  coast,  disintegration  and 
retrogression  followed,  for  as  the  American 
traffic  lessened,  the  Arabian  traffic  increased. 
When,  therefore,  Stanley  opened  the  Congo 
valley  to  modern  knowledge,  Leopold  II  of  Bel- 
gium conceived  the  idea  of  founding  here  a free 
international  state  which  was  to  bring  civiliza- 
tion to  the  heart  of  Africa.  Consequently  there 
was  formed  in  1878  an  international  committee 
to  study  the  region.  Stanley  was  finally  com- 
missioned to  inquire  as  to  the  best  way  of  in- 
troducing European  trade  and  culture.  “I  am 
charged,”  he  said,  “to  open  and  keep  open,  if 
possible,  all  such  districts  and  countries  as  I 
may  explore,  for  the  benefit  of  the  commercial 
world.  The  mission  is  supported  by  a phil- 
anthropic society,  which  numbers  nobleminded 
men  of  several  nations.  It  is  not  a religious 


GUINEA  AND  CONGO 


77 


society,  but  my  instructions  are  entirely  of  that 
spirit.  No  violence  must  be  used,  and  wherever 
rejected,  the  mission  must  withdraw  to  seek 
another  field.” 1 

The  Bula  Matadi  or  Stone  Breaker,  as  the 
natives  called  Stanley,  threw  himself  energeti- 
cally into  the  work  and  had  by  1881  built  a road 
past  the  falls  to  the  plateau,  where  thousands 
of  miles  of  river  navigation  were  thus  opened. 
Stations  were  established,  and  by  1884  Stanley 
returned  armed  with  four  hundred  and  fifty 
“treaties”  with  the  native  chiefs,  and  the  new 
“State”  appealed  to  the  world  for  recognition. 

The  United  States  first  recognized  the  “Congo 
Free  State,”  which  was  at  last  made  a sovereign 
power  under  international  guarantees  by  the 
Congress  of  Berlin  in  the  year  1885,  and  Leopold 
II  was  chosen  its  king.  The  state  had  an  area 
of  about  nine  hundred  thousand  square  miles, 
with  a population  of  about  thirty  million. 

One  of  the  first  tasks  before  the  new  state  was 
to  check  the  Arab  slave  traders.  The  Arabs  had 
hitherto  acted  as  traders  and  middlemen  along 
the  upper  Congo,  and  when  the  English  and 
Congo  state  overthrew  Mzidi,  the  reigning  king 
in  the  Kantanga  country,  a general  revolt  of  the 
Arabs  and  mulattoes  took  place.  For  a time, 
1892-93,  the  whites  were  driven  out,  but  in  a 
year  or  two  the  Arabs  and  their  allies  were  sub- 
dued. 

Humanity  and  commerce,  however,  did  not 
1 The  Congo,  I,  Chap.  III. 


78 


THE  NEGRO 


replace  the  Arab  slave  traders.  Rather  European 
greed  and  serfdom  were  substituted.  The  land 
was  confiscated  by  the  state  and  farmed  out  to 
private  Belgian  corporations.  The  wilder  canni- 
bal tribes  were  formed  into  a militia  to  prey  on  the 
industrious,  who  were  taxed  with  specific  amounts 
of  ivory  and  rubber,  and  scourged  and  mutilated 
if  they  failed  to  pay.  Harris  declares  that 
King  Leopold’s  regime  meant  the  death  of 
twelve  million  natives. 

“Europe  was  staggered  at  the  Leopoldian 
atrocities,  and  they  were  terrible  indeed;  but 
what  we,  who  were  behind  the  scenes,  felt  most 
keenly  was  the  fact  that  the  real  catastrophe  in 
the  Congo  was  desolation  and  murder  in  the 
larger  sense.  The  invasion  of  family  life,  the 
ruthless  destruction  of  every  social  barrier,  the 
shattering  of  every  tribal  law,  the  introduction 
of  criminal  practices  which  struck  the  chiefs  of 
the  people  dumb  with  horror  — in  a word,  a 
veritable  avalanche  of  filth  and  immorality 
overwhelmed  the  Congo  tribes.”  1 

So  notorious  did  the  exploitation  and  misrule 
become  that  Leopold  was  forced  to  take  measures 
toward  reform,  and  finally  in  1909  the  Free 
State  became  a Belgian  colony.  Some  reforms 
have  been  inaugurated  and  others  may  follow, 
but  the  valley  of  the  Congo  will  long  stand  as 
a monument  of  shame  to  Christianity  and  Eu- 
ropean civilization. 

1 Harris:  Dawn  in  Africa. 


CHAPTER  VI 


THE  GREAT  LAKES  AND  ZIMBABWE 

We  have  already  seen  how  a branch  of  the 
conquering  Bantus  turned  eastward  by  the 
Great  Lakes  and  thus  reached  the  sea  and  even- 
tually both  the  Nile  and  South  Africa. 

This  brought  them  into  the  ancient  and  myste- 
rious land  far  up  the  Nile,  south  of  Ethiopia. 
Here  lay  the  ancient  Punt  of  the  Egyptians 
(whether  we  place  it  in  Somaliland  or,  as  seems 
far  more  likely,  around  the  Great  Lakes)  and 
here,  as  the  Egyptians  thought,  their  civilization 
began.  The  earliest  inhabitants  of  the  land  were 
apparently  of  the  Bushman  or  Hottentot  type 
of  Negro.  These  were  gradually  pushed  south- 
ward and  westward  by  the  intrusion  of  the 
Nilotic  Negroes.  Five  thousand  years  before 
Christ  the  mulatto  Egyptians  were  in  the  Nile 
valley  below  the  First  Cataract.  The  Negroes 
were  in  the  Nile  valley  down  as  far  as  the  Second 
Cataract  and  between  the  First  and  Second  Cata- 
racts were  Negroes  into  whose  veins  Semitic  blood 
had  penetrated  more  or  less.  These  mixed  ele- 
ments became  the  ancestors  of  the  modem  Somali, 
Gala,  Bishari,  and  Beja  and  spread  Negro  blood 
into  Arabia  beyond  the  Red  Sea.  The  Nilotic 
79 


80 


THE  NEGRO 


Negroes  to  the  south  early  became  great  traders 
in  ivory,  gold,  leopard  skins,  gums,  beasts,  birds, 
and  slaves,  and  they  opened  up  systematic 
trade  between  Egypt  and  the  Great  Lakes. 

The  result  was  endless  movement  and  migration 
both  in  ancient  and  modern  days,  which  makes  the 
cultural  history  of  the  Great  Lakes  region  very 
difficult  to  understand.  Three  great  elements  are, 
however,  clear:  first,  the  Egyptian  element,  by 
the  northward  migration  of  the  Negro  ancestors 
of  predynastic  Egypt  and  the  southern  conquests 
and  trade  of  dynastic  Egypt;  second,  the  Sem- 
itic influence  from  Arabia  and  Persia;  third,  the 
Negro  influences  from  western  and  central 
Africa. 

The  migration  of  the  Bantu  is  the  first  clearly 
defined  movement  of  modern  times.  As  we  have 
shown,  they  began  to  move  southward  at  least 
a thousand  years  before  .Christ,  skirting  the 
Congo  forests  and  wandering  along  the  Great 
Lakes  and  down  to  the  Zambesi.  What  did 
they  find  in  this  land? 

We  do  not  know  certainly,  but  from  what  we  do 
know  we  may  reconstruct  the  situation  in  this 
way:  the  primitive  culture  of  the  Hottentots  of 
Punt  had  been  further  developed  by  them  and  by 
other  stronger  Negro  stocks  until  it  reached  a 
highly  developed  culture.  Widespread  agri- 
culture, and  mining  of  gold,  silver,  and  precious 
stones  started  a trade  that  penetrated  to  Asia 
and  North  Africa.  This  may  have  been  the 
source  of  the  gold  of  the  Ophir. 


GREAT  LAKES  AND  ZYMBABWE  81 


The  state  that  thus  arose  became  in  time 
strongly  organized;  it  employed  slave  labor  in 
crushing  the  hard  quartz,  sinking  pits,  and  carry- 
ing underground  galleries;  it  carried  out  a sys- 
tem of  irrigation  and  built  stone  buildings  and 
fortifications.  There  exists  to-day  mahy  re- 
mains of  these  building  operations  in  the  Kala- 
hari desert  and  in  northern  Rhodesia.  Five 
hundred  groups,  covering  over  an  area  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  square  miles,  lie  be- 
tween the  Limpopo  and  Zambesi  rivers.  Min- 
ing operations  have  been  carried  on  in  these  plains 
for  generations,  and  one  estimate  is  that  at  least 
three  hundred  and  seventy-five  million  dollars’ 
worth  of  gold  had  been  extracted.  Some  have 
thought  that  the  older  workings  must  date  back 
to  one  or  even  three  thousand  years  before  the 
Christian  era. 

“There  are  other  mines,”  writes  De  Barros  in 
the  seventeenth  century,1  “in  a district  called 
Toroa,  which  is  otherwise  known  as  the  kingdom 
of  Butua,  whose  ruler  is  a prince,  by  name  Burrow, 
a vassal  of  Benomotapa.  This  land  is  near  the 
other  which  we  said  consisted  of  extensive  plains, 
and  those  ruins  are  the  oldest  that  are  known  in 
that  region.  They  are  all  in  a plain,  in  the  middle 
of  which  stands  a square  fortress,  all  of  dressed 
stones  within  and  without,  well  wrought  and 
of  marvelous  size,  without  any  lime  showing  the 
joinings,  the  walls  of  which  are  over  twenty-five 
hands  thick,  but  the  height  is  not  so  great  com- 
1 Quoted  in  Bent:  Ruined  Cities  of  Mashonaland,  pp.  203  ff. 


82 


THE  NEGRO 


pared  to  the  thickness.  And  above  the  gateway 
of  that  edifice  is  an  inscription  which  some 
Moorish  [Arab]  traders  who  were  there  could  not 
read,  nor  say  what  writing  it  was.  All  these 
structures  the  people  of  this  country  call  Sym- 
baoe  [Zymbabwe],  which  with  them  means  a 
court,  for  every  place  where  Benomotapa  stays 
is  so  called.” 

Later  investigation  has  shown  that  these 
buildings  were  in  many  cases  carefully  planned 
and  built  fortifications.  At  Niekerk,  for  in- 
stance, nine  or  ten  hills  are  fortified  on  concen- 
tric walls  thirty  to  fifty  feet  in  number,  with  a 
place  for  the  village  at  the  top.  The  buildings 
are  forts,  miniature  citadels,  and  also  workshops 
and  cattle  kraals.  Iron  implements  and  hand- 
some pottery  were  found  here,  and  close  to  the 
Zambesi  there  are  extraordinary  fortifications. 
Farther  south  at  Inyanga  there  is  less  strong 
defense,  and  at  Umtali  there  are  no  fortifications, 
showing  that  builders  feared  invasion  from  the 
north. 

These  people  worked  in  gold,  silver,  tin,  copper, 
and  bronze  and  made  beautiful  pottery.  There 
is  evidence  of  religious  significance  in  the  build- 
ings, and  what  is  called  the  temple  was  the  royal 
residence  and  served  as  a sort  of  acropolis.  The 
surrounding  residences  in  the  valley  were  evi- 
dently occupied  by  wealthy  traders  and  were  not 
fortified.  Here  the  gold  was  received  from  sur- 
rounding districts  and  bartered  with  traders. 

As  usual  there  have  been  repeated  attempts 


GREAT  LAKES  AND  ZYMBABWE  83 


to  find  an  external  and  especially  an  Asiatic 
origin  for  this  culture.  So  far,  however,  arche- 
ological research  seems  to  confirm  its  African 
origin.  The  implements,  weapons,  and  art  are 
characteristically  African  and  there  is  no  evident 
connection  with  outside  sources.  How  far  back 
this  civilization  dates  it  is  difficult  to  say,  a 
great  deal  depending  upon  the  dating  of  the  iron 
age  in  South  Africa.  If  it  was  the  same  as  in  the 
Mediterranean  regions,  the  earliest  limit  was 
1000  b.c.;  it  might,  however,  have  been  much 
earlier,  especially  if,  as  seems  probable,  the  use 
of  iron  originated  in  Africa.  On  the  other  hand 
the  culmination  of  this  culture  has  been  placed 
by  some  as  late  as  the  modern  middle  ages. 

What  was  it  that  overthrew  this  civilization? 
Undoubtedly  the  same  sort  of  raids  of  barbarous 
warriors  that  we  have  known  in  our  day.  For 
instance,  in  1570  there  came  upon  the  country  of 
Mozambique,  farther  up  the  coast,  “such  an 
inundation  of  pagans  that  they  could  not  be 
numbered.  They  came  from  that  part  of  Mono- 
motapa  where  is  the  great  lake  from  which  spring 
these  great  rivers.  They  left  no  other  signs  of 
the  towns  they  passed  but  the  heaps  of  ruins  and 
the  bones  of  inhabitants.”  So,  too,  it  is  told  how 
the  Zimbas  came,  “a  strange  people  never  before 
seen  there,  who,  leaving  their  own  country, 
traversed  a great  part  of  this  Ethiopia  like  a 
scourge  of  God,  destroying  every  living  thing 
they  came  across.  They  were  twenty  thousand 
strong  and  marched  without  children  or  women,” 


84 


THE  NEGRO 


just  as  four  hundred  years  later  the  Zulu  impi 
marched.  Again  in  1602  a horde  of  people  came 
from  the  interior  called  the  Cabires,  or  cannibals. 
They  entered  the  kingdom  of  Monomotapa,  and 
the  reigning  king,  being  weak,  was  in  great  terror. 
Thus  gradually  the  Monomotapa  fell,  and  its 
power  was  scattered  until  the  Kaffir-Zulu  raids 
of  our  day.1 

The  Arab  writer,  Macoudi,  in  the  tenth  century 
visited  the  East  African  coast  somewhere  north 
of  the  equator.  He  found  the  Indian  Sea  at  that 
time  frequented  by  Arab  and  Persian  vessels, 
but  there  were  no  Asiatic  settlements  on  the 
African  shore.  The  Bantu,  or  as  he  calls  them, 
Zenji,  inhabited  the  country  as  far  south  as  Sofala, 
where  they  bordered  upon  the  Bushmen.  These 
Bantus  were  under  a ruler  with  the  dynastic 
title  of  Waklimi.  He  was  paramount  over  all 
the  other  tribes  of  the  north  and  could  put 
three  hundred  thousand  men  in  the  field.  They 
used  oxen  as  beasts  of  burden  and  the  country 
produced  gold  in  abundance,  while  panther  skin 
was  largely  used  for  clothing.  Ivory  was  sold 
to  Asia  and  the  Bantu  used  iron  for  personal 
adornment  instead  of  gold  or  silver.  They  rode 
on  their  oxen,  which  ran  with  great  speed,  and 
they  ate  millet  and  honey  and  the  flesh  of  animals. 

Inland  among  the  Bantu  arose  later  the  line 
of  rulers  called  the  Monomotapa  among  the 
gifted  Makalanga.  Their  state  was  very  ex- 

1 Cf.  “Ethiopia  Oriental,”  by  J.  Dos  Santos,  in  Theal’s 
Records  of  South  Africa,  Vol.  VII. 


GREAT  LAKES  AND  ZYMBABWE  85 


tensive,  ranging  from  the  coast  far  into  the  inte- 
rior and  from  Mozambique  down  to  the  Limpopo. 
It  was  strongly  organized,  with  feudatory  allied 
states,  and  carried  on  an  extensive  commerce 
by  means  of  the  traders  on  the  coast.  The  kings 
were  converted  to  nominal  Christianity  by  the 
Portuguese. 

There  are  indications  of  trade  between  Nupe 
in  West  Africa  and  Sofala  on  the  east  coast,  and 
certainly  trade  between  Asia  and  East  Africa 
is  earlier  than  the  beginning  of  the  Christian 
era.  The  Asiatic  traders  settled  on  the  coast  and 
by  means  of  mulatto  and  Negro  merchants 
brought  Central  Africa  into  contact  with  Arabia, 
India,  China,  and  Malaysia. 

The  coming  of  the  Asiatics  was  in  this  wise: 
Zaide,  great-grandson  of  Ali,  nephew  and  son- 
in-law  of  Mohammed,  was  banished  Com  Arabia 
as  a heretic.  He  passed  over  to  Africa  and  formed 
temporary  settlements.  His  people  mingled  with 
the  blacks,  and  the  resulting  mulatto  traders, 
known  as  the  Emoxaidi,  seem  to  have  wandered 
as  far  south  as  the  equator.  Soon  other  Arabian 
families  came  over  on  account  of  oppression  and 
founded  the  towns  of  Magadosho  and  Brava,  both 
not  far  north  of  the  equator.  The  first  town  be- 
came a place  of  importance  and  other  settlements 
were  made.  The  Emoxaidi,  whom  the  later  im- 
migrants regarded  as  heretics,  were  driven  in- 
land and  became  the  interpreting  traders  between 
the  coast  and  the  Bantu.  Some  wanderers  from 
Magadosho  came  into  the  Port  of  Sofala  and 


86 


THE  NEGRO 


there  learned  that  gold  could  be  obtained.  This 
led  to  a small  Arab  settlement  at  that  place. 

Seventy  years  later,  and  about  fifty  years  before 
the  Norman  conquest  of  England,  certain  Per- 
sians settled  at  Kilwa  in  East  Africa,  led  by  Ali, 
who  had  been  despised  in  his  land  because  he 
was  the  son  of  a black  Abyssinian  slave  mother. 
Kilwa,  because  of  this,  eventually  became  the 
most  important  commercial  station  on  the  East 
African  coast,  and  in  this  and  all  these  settle- 
ments a very  large  mulatto  population  grew  up, 
so  that  very  soon  the  whole  settlement  was  in- 
distinguishable in  color  from  the  Bantu. 

In  1330  Ibn  Batuta  visited  Edlwa.  He  found 
an  abundance  of  ivory  and  some  gold  and  heard 
that  the  inhabitants  of  Kilwa  had  gained  vic- 
tories over  the  Zenji  or  Bantu.  Kilwa  had  at 
that  time  three  hundred  mosques  and  was 
“ built  of  handsome  houses  of  stone  and  lime,  and 
very  lofty,  with  their  windows  like  those  of  the 
Christians;  in  the  same  way  it  has  streets,  and 
these  houses  have  got  terraces,  and  the  wood- 
work is  with  the  masonry,  with  plenty  of  gardens, 
in  which  there  are  many  fruit  trees  and  much 
water.”  1 Kilwa  after  a time  captured  Sofala, 
seizing  it  from  Magadosho.  Eventually  Kilwa 
became  mistress  of  the  island  of  Zanzibar,  of 
Mozambique,  and  of  much  other  territory. 
The  forty-third  ruler  of  Kilwa  after  Ali  was 
named  Abraham,  and  he  was  ruling  when  the 
Portuguese  arrived.  The  latter  reported  that 
1 Barbosa.  Quoted  in  Keane,  II,  482. 


GREAT  LAKES  AND  ZYMBABWE  87 


these  people  cultivated  rice  and  cocoa,  built 
ships,  and  had  considerable  commerce  with 
Asia.  All  the  people,  of  whatever  color,  were 
Mohammedans,  and  the  richer  were  clothed  in 
gorgeous  robes  of  silk  and  velvet.  They  traded 
with  the  inland  Bantus  and  met  numerous  tribes, 
receiving  gold,  ivory,  millet,  rice,  cattle,  poultry, 
and  honey. 

On  the  islands  the  Asiatics  were  independent, 
but  on  the  main  lands  south  of  Kilwa  the  sheiks 
ruled  only  their  own  people,  under  the  over- 
lordship of  the  Bantus,  to  whom  they  were  com- 
pelled to  pay  large  tribute  each  year. 

Vasco  da  Gama  doubled  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope  in  1497  and  went  north  on  the  east  coast 
as  far  as  India.  In  the  next  ten  years  the  Portu- 
guese had  occupied  more  than  six  different  points 
on  that  coast,  including  Sofala.1 

Thus  civilization  waxed  and  waned  in  East 
Africa  among  prehistoric  Negroes,  Arab  and 
Persian  mulattoes  on  the  coast,  in  the  Zend  or 
Zeng  empire  of  Bantu  Negroes,  and  later  in  the 
Bantu  rule  of  the  Monomotapa.  And  thus, 
too,  among  later  throngs  of  the  fiercer,  warlike 
Bantu,  the  ancient  culture  of  the  land  largely 
died.  Yet  something  survived,  and  in  the  modern 
Bantu  state,  language,  and  industry  can  be  found 

1 It  was  called  Sofala,  from  an  Arabic  word,  and  may  be 
associated  with  the  Ophir  of  Solomon.  So,  too,  the  river 
Sabi,  a little  off  Sofala,  may  be  associated  with  the  name  of 
the  Queen  of  Sheba,  whose  lineage  was  supposed  to  be  per- 
petuated in  the  powerful  Monomotapa  as  well  as  the  Abys- 
sinians. 


88 


THE  NEGRO 


clear  links  that  establish  the  essential  identity 
of  the  absorbed  peoples  with  the  builders  of 
Zymbabwe. 

So  far  we  have  traced  the  history  of  the  lands 
into  which  the  southward  stream  of  invading 
Bantus  turned,  and  have  followed  them  to  the 
Limpopo  River.  We  turn  now  to  the  lands  north 
from  Lake  Nyassa. 

The  aboriginal  Negroes  sustained  in  prehis- 
toric time  invasions  from  the  northeast  by 
Negroids  of  a type  like  the  ancient  Egyptians 
and  like  the  modern  Gallas,  Masai,  and  Somalis. 
To  these  migrations  were  added  attacks  from 
the  Nile  Negroes  to  the  north  and  the  Bantu 
invaders  from  the  south.  This  has  led  to  great 
differences  among  the  groups  of  the  population 
and  in  their  customs.  Some  are  fierce  moun- 
taineers, occupying  hilly  plateaus  six  thousand 
feet  above  the  sea  level;  others,  like  the  Wa 
Swahili,  are  traders  on  the  coast.  There  are  the 
Masai,  chocolate-colored  and  frizzly-haired,  or- 
ganized for  war  and  cattle  lifting;  and  Negroids 
like  the  Gallas,  who,  blending  with  the  Bantus, 
have  produced  the  race  of  modern  Uganda. 

It  was  in  this  region  that  the  kingdom  of  Kit- 
wara  was  founded  by  the  Galla  chief,  Kintu. 
About  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century 
the  empire  was  dismembered,  the  largest  share 
falling  to  Uganda.  The  ensuing  history  of 
Uganda  is  of  great  interest.  When  King  Mutesa 
came  to  the  throne  in  1862,  he  found  Mohamme- 
dan influences  in  his  land  and  was  induced  to 


GREAT  LAKES  AND  ZYMBABWE  89 


admit  English  Protestants  and  French  Catho- 
lics. Uganda  thereupon  became  an  extraordinary 
religious  battlefield  between  these  three  beliefs. 
Mutesa’s  successor,  Mwanga,  caused  an  Eng- 
lish bishop  to  be  killed  in  1885,  believing  (as 
has  since  proven  quite  true)  that  the  religion  he 
offered  would  be  used  as  a cloak  for  conquest. 
The  final  result  was  that,  after  open  war  between 
the  religions,  Uganda  was  made  an  English  pro- 
tectorate in  1894. 

The  Negroes  of  Uganda  are  an  intelligent  people 
who  had  organized  a complex  feudal  state.  At 
the  head  stood  the  king,  and  under  him  twelve 
feudal  lords.  The  present  king,  Daudi  Chua, 
is  the  young  grandson  of  Mutesa  and  rules  under 
the  overlordship  of  England. 

Many  things  show  the  connection  between 
Egypt  and  this  part  of  Africa.  The  same  glass 
beads  are  found  in  Uganda  and  Upper  Egypt, 
and  similar  canoes  are  built.  Harps  and  other 
instruments  bear  great  resemblance.  Finally 
the  Bahima,  as  the  Galla  invaders  are  called,  are 
startlingly  Egyptian  in  type;  at  the  same  time 
they  are  undoubtedly  Negro  in  hair  and  color. 
Perhaps  we  have  here  the  best  racial  picture  of 
what  ancient  Egyptian  and  upper  Nile  regions 
were  in  predynastic  times  and  later. 

Thus  in  outline  was  seen  the  mission  of  The 
People  — La  Bantu  as  they  called  themselves. 
They  migrated,  they  settled,  they  tore  down,  and 
they  learned,  and  they  in  turn  were  often  over- 
thrown by  succeeding  tribes  of  their  own  folk. 


90 


THE  NEGRO 


They  rule  with  their  tongue  and  their  power  all 
Africa  south  of  the  equator,  save  where  the 
Europeans  have  entered.  They  have  never  been 
conquered,  although  the  gold  and  diamond  traders 
have  sought  to  debauch  them,  and  the  ivory  and 
rubber  capitalists  have  cruelly  wronged  their 
weaker  groups.  They  are  the  Africans  with  whom 
the  world  of  to-morrow  must  reckon,  just  as  the 
world  of  yesterday  knew  them  to  its  cost. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  WAR  OF  RACES  AT  LAND’S  END 

Primitive  man  in  Africa  is  found  in  the  in- 
terior jungles  and  down  at  Land’s  End  in  South 
Africa.  The  Pygmy  people  in  the  jungles  repre- 
sent to-day  a small  survival  from  the  past,  but 
a survival  of  curious  interest,  pushed  aside  by 
the  torrent  of  conquest.  Also  pushed  on  by  these 
waves  of  Bantu  conquest,  moved  the  ancient 
Abatwa  or  Bushmen.  They  are  small  in  stature, 
yellow  in  color,  with  crisp-curled  hair.  The 
traditions  of  the  Bushmen  say  that  they  came 
southward  from  the  regions  of  the  Great  Lakes, 
and  indeed  the  king  and  queen  of  Punt,  as  de- 
picted by  the  Egyptians,  were  Bushmen  or  Hot- 
tentots. 

Their  tribes  may  be  divided,  in  accordance 
with  their  noticeable  artistic  talents,  into  the 
painters  and  the  sculptors.  The  sculptors  en- 
tered South  Africa  by  moving  southward  through 
the  more  central  portions  of  the  country,  crossing 
the  Zambesi,  and  coming  down  to  the  Cape. 
The  painters,  on  the  other  hand,  came  through 
Damaraland  on  the  west  coast;  when  they  came 
to  the  great  mountain  regions,  they  turned  east- 
ward and  can  be  traced  as  far  as  the  mountains 
91 


92 


THE  NEGRO 


opposite  Delagoa  Bay.  The  mass  of  them  set- 
tled down  in  the  lower  part  of  the  Cape  and  in  the 
Kalahari  desert.  The  painters  were  true  cave 
dwellers,  but  the  sculptors  lived  in  large  com- 
munities on  the  stony  hills,  which  they  marked 
with  their  carvings. 

These  Bushmen  believed  in  an  ancient  race  of 
people  who  preceded  them  in  South  Africa. 
They  attributed  magic  power  to  these  unknown 
folk,  and  said  that  some  of  them  had  been 
translated  as  stars  to  the  sky.  Before  their 
groups  were  dispersed  the  Bushmen  had  regular 
government.  Tribes  with  their  chiefs  occupied 
well-defined  tracts  of  country  and  were  sub- 
divided into  branch  tribes  under  subsidiary 
chiefs.  The  great  cave  represented  the  dignity 
and  glory  of  the  entire  tribe. 

The  Bushmen  suffered  most  cruelly  in  the  suc- 
ceeding migrations  and  conquests  of  South 
Africa.  They  fought  desperately  in  self-defense; 
they  saw  their  women  and  children  carried  into 
bondage  and  they  themselves  hunted  like  wild 
beasts.  Both  savage  and  civilized  men  appro- 
priated their  land.  Still  they  were  brave  people. 
“In  this  struggle  for  existence  their  bitterest 
enemies,  of  whatever  shade  of  color  they  might 
be,  were  forced  to  make  an  unqualified  acknowl- 
edgment of  the  courage  and  daring  they  so  in- 
variably exhibited.”  1 

Here,  to  a remote  corner  of  the  world,  where, 
as  one  of  their  number  said,  they  had  supposed 
1 Stowe:  Native  Races  of  South  Africa,  pp.  215-216. 


WAR  OF  RACES  AT  LAND’S  END  93 


that  the  only  beings  in  the  world  were  Bushmen 
and  lions,  came  a series  of  invaders.  It  was  the 
outer  ripples  of  civilization  starting  far  away, 
the  indigenous  and  external  civilizations  of 
Africa  beating  with  great  impulse  among  the 
Ethiopians  and  the  Egyptian  mulattoes  and 
Sudanese  Negroes  and  Yorubans,  and  driving 
the  Bantu  race  southward.  The  Bantus  crowded 
more  and  more  upon  the  primitive  Bushmen,  and 
probably  a mingling  of  the  Bushmen  and  the 
Bantus  gave  rise  to  the  Hottentots. 

The  Hottentots,  or  as  they  called  themselves, 
Khoi  Khoin  (Men  of  Men),  were  physically  a 
stronger  race  than  the  Abatwa  and  gave  many 
evidences  of  degeneration  from  a high  culture, 
especially  in  the  “phenomenal  perfection”  of  a 
language  which  “is  so  highly  developed,  both  in 
its  rich  phonetic  system,  as  represented  by  a 
very  delicately  graduated  series  of  vowels  and 
diphthongs,  and  in  its  varied  grammatical  struc- 
ture, that  Lepsius  sought  for  its  affinities  in  the 
Egyptian  at  the  other  end  of  the  continent.” 

When  South  Africa  was  first  discovered  there 
were  two  distinct  types  of  Hottentot.  The  more 
savage  Hottentots  were  simply  large,  strong 
Bushmen,  using  weapons  superior  to  the  Bush- 
men, without  domestic  cattle  or  sheep.  Other 
tribes  nearer  the  center  of  South  Africa  were 
handsomer  in  appearance  and  raised  an  Egyptian 
breed  of  cattle  which  they  rode. 

In  general  the  Hottentots  were  yellow,  with 
close-curled  hair,  high  cheek  bones,  and  some- 


94 


THE  NEGRO 


what  oblique  eyes.  Their  migration  commenced 
about  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century  and  was, 
as  is  usual  in  such  cases,  a scattered,  straggling 
movement.  The  traditions  of  the  Hottentots 
point  to  the  lake  country  of  Central  Africa  as 
their  place  of  origin,  whence  they  were  driven  by 
the  Bechuana  tribes  of  the  Bantu.  They  fled 
westward  to  the  ocean  and  then  turned  south  and 
came  upon  the  Bushmen,  whom  they  had  only 
partially  subdued  when  the  Dutch  arrived  as 
settlers  in  1652. 

The  Dutch  “Boers”  began  by  purchasing  land 
from  the  Hottentots  and  then,  as  they  grew  more 
powerful,  they  dispossessed  the  dark  men  and 
tried  to  enslave  them.  There  grew  up  a large 
Dutch-Hottentot  class.  Indeed  the  filtration  of 
Negro  blood  noticeable  in  modern  Boers  accounts 
for  much  curious  history.  Soon  after  the  advent 
of  the  Dutch  some  of  the  Hottentots,  of  whom 
there  were  not  more  than  thirty  or  forty  thousand, 
led  by  the  Korana  clans,  began  slowly  to  retreat 
northward,  followed  by  the  invading  Dutch 
and  fighting  the  Dutch,  each  other,  and  the 
wretched  Bushmen.  In  the  latter  part  of  the 
eighteenth  century  the  Hottentots  had  reached 
the  great  interior  plain  and  met  the  on-coming 
outposts  of  the  Bantu  nations. 

The  Bechuana,  whom  the  Hottentots  first 
met,  were  the  most  advanced  of  the  Negro  tribes 
of  Central  Africa.  They  had  crossed  the  Zambesi 
in  the  fourteenth  or  fifteenth  century;  their 
government  was  a sort  of  feudal  system  with 


WAR  OF  RACES  AT  LAND’S  END  95 


hereditary  chiefs  and  vassals;  they  were  careful 
agriculturists,  laid  out  large  towns  with  great 
regularity,  and  were  the  most  skilled  of  smiths. 
They  used  stone  in  building,  carved  on  wood,  and 
many  of  them,  too,  were  keen  traders.  These 
tribes,  coming  southward,  occupied  the  east- 
central  part  of  South  Africa  comprising  modern 
Bechuanaland.  Apparently  they  had  started 
from  the  central  lake  country  somewhere  late 
in  the  fifteenth  century,  and  by  the  middle  of 
the  eighteenth  century  one  of  their  great  chiefs, 
Tao,  met  the  on-coming  Hottentots. 

The  Hottentots  compelled  Tao  to  retreat,  but 
the  mulatto  Gricquas  arrived  from  the  south, 
and,  allying  themselves  with  the  Bechuana, 
stopped  the  rout.  The  Gricquas  sprang  from 
and  took  their  name  from  an  old  Hottentot 
tribe.  They  were  led  by  Kok  and  Barends,  and 
by  adding  other  elements  they  became,  partly 
through  their  own  efforts  and  partly  through  the 
efforts  of  the  missionaries,  a community  of  fairly 
well  civilized  people.  In  Gricqualand  WTest  the 
mulatto  Gricquas,  under  their  chiefs  Kok  and 
Waterboer,  lived  until  the  discovery  of  diamonds. 

The  Gricquas  and  Bechuana  tribes  were  thus 
gradually  checking  the  Hottentots  when,  in  the 
nineteenth  century,  there  came  two  new  develop- 
ments: first,  the  English  took  possession  of  Cape 
Colony,  and  the  Dutch  began  to  move  in  larger 
numbers  toward  the  interior;  secondly,  a 
newer  and  fiercer  element  of  the  Bantu  tribes, 
the  Zulu-Kaffirs,  appeared.  The  Kaffirs,  or  as 


96 


THE  NEGRO 


they  called  themselves,  the  Amazosas,  claimed 
descent  from  Zuide,  a great  chief  of  the  fifteenth 
century  in  the  lake  country.  They  are  among 
the  tallest  people  in  the  world,  averaging  five 
feet  ten  inches,  and  are  slim,  well-proportioned, 
and  muscular.  The  more  warlike  tribes  were 
usually  clothed  in  leopard  or  ox  skins.  Cattle 
formed  their  chief  wealth,  stock  breeding  and 
hunting  and  fighting  their  main  pursuits. 
Mentally  they  were  men  of  tact  and  intelligence, 
with  a national  religion  based  upon  ancestor 
worship,  while  their  government  was  a patriarchal 
monarchy  limited  by  an  aristocracy  and  almost 
feudal  in  character.  The  common  law  which 
had  grown  up  from  the  decisions  of  the  chiefs 
made  the  head  of  the  family  responsible  for  the 
conduct  of  its  branches,  a village  for  all  its  resi- 
dents, and  the  clan  for  all  its  villages.  Finally 
there  was  a paramount  chief,  who  was  the  civil 
and  military  father  of  his  people.  These  people 
laid  waste  to  the  coast  regions  and  in  1779  came 
in  contact  with  the  Dutch.  A series  of  Dutch- 
Kaffir  wars  ensued  between  1779  and  1795  in 
which  the  Dutch  were  hard  pressed. 

In  1806  the  English  took  final  possession  of 
Cape  Colony.  At  that  time  there  were  twenty- 
five  thousand  Boers,  twenty-five  thousand  pure 
and  mixed  Hottentots,  and  twenty-five  thousand 
slaves  secured  from  the  east  coast.  Between 
1811  and  1877  there  were  six  Kaffir-English  wars. 
One  of  these  in  1818  grew  out  of  the  ignorant 
interference  of  the  English  with  the  Kaffir  tribal 


WAR  OF  RACES  AT  LAND’S  END  97 


system;  then  there  came  a terrible  war  between 
1834  and  1835,  followed  by  the  annexation  of 
all  the  country  as  far  as  the  Kei  River.  The  war 
of  the  Axe  (1846—48)  led  to  further  annexation 
by  the  British. 

Hostilities  broke  out  again  in  1856  and  1863. 
In  the  former  year,  despairing  of  resistance  to 
invading  England,  a prophet  arose  who  advised 
the  wholesale  destruction  of  all  Kaffir  property 
except  weapons,  in  order  that  this  faith  might 
bring  back  their  dead  heroes.  The  result  was 
that  almost  a third  of  the  nation  perished  from 
hunger.  Fresh  troubles  occurred  in  1877,  when 
the  Ama-Xosa  confederacy  was  finally  broken 
up,  and  to-day  gradually  these  tribes  are  passing 
from  independence  to  a state  of  mild  vassalage 
to  the  British. 

Meantime  the  more  formidable  part  of  the 
Zulu-Kaffirs  had  been  united  under  the  terrible 
Chief  Chaka.  He  had  organized  a military 
system,  not  a new  one  by  any  means,  but  one  of 
which  we  hear  rumors  back  in  the  lake  regions  in 
the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries.  Mc- 
Donald says,  “There  has  probably  never  been  a 
more  perfect  system  of  discipline  than  that  by 
which  Chaka  ruled  his  army  and  kingdom.  At 
a review  an  order  might  be  given  in  the  most 
unexpected  manner,  which  meant  death  to  hun- 
dreds. If  the  regiment  hesitated  or  dared  to 
remonstrate,  so  perfect  was  the  discipline  and 
so  great  the  jealousy  that  another  was  ready  to 
cut  them  down.  A warrior  returning  from  battle 


98 


THE  NEGRO 


without  his  arms  was  put  to  death  without  trial. 
A general  returning  unsuccessful  in  the  main 
purpose  of  his  expedition  shared  the  same  fate. 
Whoever  displeased  the  king  was  immediately 
executed.  The  traditional  courts  practically 
ceased  to  exist  so  far  as  the  will  and  action  of  the 
tyrant  was  concerned.”  With  this  army  Chaka 
fell  on  tribe  after  tribe.  The  Bechuana  fled 
before  him  and  some  tribes  of  them  were  en- 
tirely destroyed.  The  Hottentots  suffered  se- 
verely and  one  of  his  rival  Zulu  tribes  under 
Umsilikatsi  fled  into  Matabililand,  pushing  back 
theJBechuana.  By  the  time  the  English  came  to 
Port  Natal,  Chaka  was  ruling  over  the  whole 
southeastern  seaboard,  from  the  Limpopo  River 
to  Cape  Colony,  including  the  Orange  and  Trans- 
vaal states  and  the  whole  of  Natal.  Chaka  was 
killed  in  1828  and  was  eventually  succeeded  by 
his  brother  Dingan,  who  reigned  twelve  years. 
It  was  during  Dingan’s  reign  that  England  tried 
to  abolish  slavery  in  Cape  Colony,  but  did  not 
pay  promptly  for  the  slaves,  as  she  had  promised; 
the  result  was  the  so-called  “Great  Trek,”  about 
1834,  when  thousands  of  Boers  went  into  the 
interior  across  the  Orange  and  Vaal  rivers. 

Dingan  and  these  Boers  were  soon  engaged  in 
a death  struggle  in  which  the  Zulus  were  repulsed 
and  Dingan  replaced  by  Panda.  Under  this  chief 
there  was  something  like  repose  for  sixteen  years, 
but  in  1856  civil  war  broke  out  between  his  sons, 
one  of  whom,  Cetewayo,  succeeded  his  father 
in  1882.  He  fell  into  border  disputes  with  the 


WAR  OF  RACES  AT  LAND’S  END  99 


English,  and  the  result  was  one  of  the  fiercest 
clashes  of  Europe  and  Africa  in  modern  days. 
The  Zulus  fought  desperately,  annihilating  at 
one  time  a whole  detachment  and  killing  the 
young  prince  Napoleon.  But  after  all  it  was 
assagais  against  machine  guns,  and  the  Zulus 
were  finally  defeated  at  Ulundi,  July  4,  1879. 
Thereupon  Zululand  was  divided  among  thirteen 
semi-independent  chiefs  and  became  a British 
protectorate. 

Since  then  the  best  lands  have  been  gradually 
reoccupied  by  a large  number  of  tribes  — Kaffirs 
from  the  south  and  Zulus  from  the  north.  The 
tribal  organization,  without  being  actually  broken 
up,  has  been  deprived  of  its  dangerous  features 
by  appointing  paid  village  headmen  and  trans- 
forming the  hereditary  chief  into  a British  govern- 
ment official.  In  Natal  there  are  about  one  hun- 
dred and  seventy  tribal  chiefs,  and  nearly  half 
of  these  have  been  appointed  by  the  governor. 

Umsilikatsi,  who  had  been  driven  into  Mata- 
bililand  by  the  terrible  Chaka  in  1828  and  de- 
feated by  the  Dutch  in  1837,  had  finally  reestab- 
lished his  headquarters  in  Rhodesia  in  1838. 
Here  he  introduced  the  Zulu  military  system  and 
terrorized  the  peaceful  and  industrious  Bechuana 
populations.  Lobengula  succeeded  Umsilikatsi 
in  1870  and,  realizing  that  his  power  was  waning, 
began  to  retreat  northward  toward  the  Zambesi. 
He  was  finally  defeated  by  the  British  and  native 
forces  in  1893  and  the  land  was  incorporated  into 
South  Central  Africa. 


100 


THE  NEGRO 


The  result  of  all  these  movements  was  to 
break  the  inhabitants  of  Bechuanaland  into 
numerous  fragments.  There  were  small  numbers 
of  mulatto  Gricquas  in  the  southwest  and  similar 
Bastaards  in  the  northwest.  The  Hottentots 
and  Bushmen  were  dispersed  into  groups  and 
seem  doomed  to  extinction,  the  last  Hottentot 
chief  being  deposed  in  1810  and  replaced  by  an 
English  magistrate.  Partially  civilized  Hotten- 
tots still  live  grouped  together  in  their  kraals 
and  are  members  of  Christian  churches.  The 
Bechuana  hold  their  own  in  several  centers; 
one  is  in  Basutoland,  west  of  Natal,  where  a 
number  of  tribes  were  welded  together  under 
the  far-sighted  Moshesh  into  a modern  and  fairly 
well  civilized  nation.  In  the  north  part  of 
Bechuanaland  are  the  self-governing  Bamang- 
wato  and  the  Batwana,  the  former  ruled  by 
Khama,  one  of  the  canniest  of  modern  rulers  in 
Africa. 

Meantime,  in  Portuguese  territory  south  of  the 
Zambesi,  there  arose  Gaza,  a contemporary  and 
rival  of  Chaka.  His  son,  Manikus,  was  deputed 
by  Dingan,  Chaka’s  successor,  to  drive  out  the 
Portuguese.  This  Manikus  failed  to  do,  and 
to  escape  vengeance  he  migrated  north  of  the 
Limpopo.  Here  he  established  his  military 
kraal  in  a district  thirty-six  hundred  and  fifty 
feet  above  the  sea  and  one  hundred  and  twenty 
miles  inland  from  Sofala.  From  this  place  his 
soldiery  nearly  succeeded  in  driving  the  Portu- 
guese out  of  East  Africa.  He  was  succeeded  by 


WAR  OF  RACES  AT  LAND  S END  101 


his  son,  Umzila,  and  Umzila’s  brother,  Guzana 
(better  known  as  Gungunyana),  who  exercised 
for  a time  joint  authority.  Gungunyana  was 
finally  overthrown  in  November,  1895,  captured, 
and  removed  to  the  Azores. 

North  of  the  Zambesi,  in  British  territory,  the 
chief  role  in  recent  times  has  been  played  by 
the  Bechuana,  the  first  of  the  Bantu  to  return 
northward  after  the  South  African  migration. 
Livingstone  found  there  the  Makolo,  who  with 
other  tribes  had  moved  northward  on  account 
of  the  pressure  of  the  Dutch  and  Zulus  below, 
and  by  conquering  various  tribes  in  the  Zambesi 
region  had  established  a strong  power.  This 
kingdom  was  nearly  overthrown  by  the  rebellion 
of  the  Barotse,  and  in  1875  the  Barotse  kingdom 
comprised  a large  territory.  To-day  their  king, 
Newaneika,  rules  directly  and  indirectly  fifty 
thousand  square  miles,  with  a population  between 
one  and  two  and  a half  million.  They  are  under 
a protectorate  of  the  British. 

In  Southwest  Africa,  Hottentot  mulattoes 
crossing  from  the  Cape  caused  widespread  change. 
They  were  strong  men  and  daring  fighters  and 
soon  became  dominant  in  what  is  now  German 
Southwest  Africa,  where  they  fought  fiercely 
with  the  Bantu  Ova-Hereros.  Armed  with  fire 
arms,  these  Namakwa  Hottentots  threatened 
Portuguese  West  Africa,  but  Germany  intervened, 
ostensibly  to  protect  missionaries.  By  spending 
millions  of  dollars  and  thousands  of  soldiers  Ger- 
many has  nearly  exterminated  these  brave  men. 


102 


THE  NEGRO 


Thus  we  have  between  the  years  1400  and  1900 
a great  period  of  migration  up  to  1750,  when 
Bushmen,  Hottentot,  Bantu,  and  Dutch  ap- 
peared in  succession  at  Land’s  End.  In  the  latter 
part  of  the  eighteenth  century  we  have  the  clash 
of  the  Hottentots  and  Bechuana,  followed  in  the 
nineteenth  century  by  the  terrible  wars  of  Chaka, 
the  Kaffirs,  and  Matabili.  Finally,  in  the  latter 
half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  we  see  the  gradual 
subjection  of  the  Kaffir-Zulus  and  the  Bechuana 
under  the  English  and  the  final  conquest  of  the 
Dutch.  The  resulting  racial  problem  in  South 
Africa  is  one  of  great  intricacy. 

To  the  racial  problem  has  been  added  the 
tremendous  problems  of  modern  capital  brought 
by  the  discovery  of  gold  and  diamond  mines,  so 
that  the  future  of  the  Negro  race  is  peculiarly 
bound  up  in  developments  here  at  Land’s  End, 
where  the  ship  of  the  Flying  Dutchman  beats 
back  and  forth  on  its  endless  quest. 


Ancient  Kingdoms  of  Africa 


Races  in  Africa 


CHAPTER  VIII 


AFRICAN  CULTURE 

We  have  followed  the  history  of  mankind  in 
Africa  down  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  past  Ethiopia, 
to  Egypt;  we  have  seen  kingdoms  arise  along 
the  great  bend  of  the  Niger  and  strive  with  the 
ancient  culture  at  its  mouth.  We  have  seen  the 
remnants  of  mankind  at  Land’s  End,  the  ancient, 
culture  at  Punt  and  Zymbabwe,  and  followed, 
the  invading  Bantu  east,  south,  and  west  to 
their  greatest  center  in  the  vast  jungle  of  the 
Congo  valleys. 

We  must  now  gather  these  threads  together' 
and  ask  what  manner  of  men  these  were  and  how 
far  and  in  what  way  they  progressed  on  the  road 
of  human  culture. 

That  Negro  peoples  were  the  beginners  of 
civilization  along  the  Ganges,  the  Euphrates, 
and  the  Nile  seems  proven.  Early  Babylon  was 
founded  by  a Negroid  race.  Hammurabi’s 
code,  the  most  ancient  known,  says  “Anna  and 
Bel  called  me,  Hammurabi  the  exalted  prince, 
the  worshiper  of  the  gods;  to  cause  justice  to  pre- 
vail in  the  land,  to  destroy  the  wicked,  to  prevent 
the  strong  from  oppressing  the  weak,  to  go  forth 
like  the  sun  over  the  black-head  race,  to  enlighten 
103 


104 


THE  NEGRO 


the  land,  and  to  further  the  welfare  of  the 
people.”  The  Assyrians  show  a distinct  Negroid 
strain  and  early  Egypt  was  predominantly  Negro. 
These  earliest  of  cultures  were  crude  and  primi- 
tive, but  they  represented  the  highest  attain- 
ment of  mankind  after  tens  of  thousands  of  years 
in  unawakened  savagery. 

It  has  often  been  assumed  that  the  Negro  is 
physically  inferior  to  other  races  and  markedly 
distinguishable  from  them;  modern  science  gives 
no  authority  for  such  an  assumption.  The  sup- 
posed inferiority  cannot  rest  on  color,1  for  that 
is  “due  to  the  combined  influences  of  a great 
number  of  factors  of  environment  working 
through  physiological  processes,”  and  “however 
marked  the  contrasts  may  be,  there  is  no  cor- 
responding difference  in  anatomical  structure 
discoverable.” 2 So,  too,  difference  in  texture 
of  hair  is  a matter  of  degree,  not  kind,  and  is 
caused  by  heat,  moisture,  exposure,  and  the  like. 

The  bony  skeleton  presents  no  distinctly 
racial  lines  of  variation.  Prognathism  “ presents 
too  many  individual  varieties  to  be  taken  as  a 
distinctive  character  of  race.”3  Difference  in 
physical  measurements  does  not  show  the  Negro 
to  be  a more  primitive  evolutionary  form. 
Comparative  ethnology  to-day  affords  “no  sup- 
port to  the  view  which  sees  in  the  so-called  lower 

1 “ Some  authors  write  that  the  Ethiopians  paint  the  devil 
white,  in  disdain  of  our  complexions.”  — Ludolf:  History 
of  Ethiopia,  p.  72. 

J Ripley:  Races  of  Europe,  pp.  58,  62. 

1 Denniker:  Races  of  Men,  p.  63. 


AFRICAN  CULTURE 


105 


races  of  mankind  a transition  stage  from  beast 
to  man.”  1 

Much  has  been  made  of  the  supposed  smaller 
brain  of  the  Negro  race;  but  this  is  as  yet  an 
unproved  assumption,  based  on  the  uncritical 
measurement  of  less  than  a thousand  Negro 
brains  as  compared  with  eleven  thousand  or 
more  European  brains.  Even  if  future  measure- 
ment prove  the  average  Negro  brain  lighter,  the 
vast  majority  of  Negro  brain  weights  fall  within 
the  same  limits  as  the  whites;  and  finally, 
“neither  size  nor  weight  of  the  brain  seems  to 
be  of  importance”  as  an  index  of  mental  capacity. 
We  may,  therefore,  say  with  Ratzel,  “There  is 
only  one  species  of  man.  The  variations  are 
numerous,  but  do  not  go  deep.”  2 

To  this  we  may  add  the  word  of  the  Secretary 
of  the  First  Races  Congress:  “We  are,  then, 
under  the  necessity  of  concluding  that  an  im- 
partial investigator  would  be  inclined  to  look 
upon  the  various  important  peoples  of  the  world 
as  to  all  intents  and  purposes  essentially  equal 
in  intellect,  enterprise,  morality,  and  physique.”  3 

If  these  conclusions  are  true,  we  should  expect 
to  see  in  iMrica  the  human  drama  play  itself  out 
much  as  in  other  lands,  and  such  has  actually  been 
the  fact.  At  the  same  time  we  must  expect 
peculiarities  arising  from  the  physiography  of 

1 G.  Finot:  Race  Prejudice.  F.  Herz:  Modeme  Rassen- 
theorien. 

2 Ratzel:  quoted  in  Spiller:  Inter-Racial  Problems,  p.  31. 

* Spiller:  Inter-Racial  Problems,  p.  35, 


106 


THE  NEGRO 


the  land  — its  climate,  its  rainfall,  its  deserts, 
and  the  peculiar  inaccessibility  of  the  coast. 

Three  principal  zones  of  habitation  appear: 
first,  the  steppes  and  deserts  around  the  Sahara 
in  the  north  and  the  Kalahari  desert  in  the 
south;  secondly,  the  grassy  highlands  bordering 
the  Great  Lakes  and  connecting  these  two  regions; 
thirdly,  the  forests  and  rivers  of  Central  and 
West  Africa.  In  the  deserts  are  the  nomads, 
and  the  Pygmies  are  in  the  forest  fastnesses. 
Herdsmen  and  their  cattle  cover  the  steppes  and 
highlands,  save  where  the  tsetse  fly  prevents.  In 
the  open  forests  and  grassy  highlands  are  the 
agriculturists. 

Among  the  forest  farmers  the  village  is  the 
center  of  life,  while  in  the  open  steppes  political 
life  tends  to  spread  into  larger  political  units. 
Political  integration  is,  however,  hindered  by  an 
ease  of  internal  communication  almost  as  great 
as  the  difficulty  of  reaching  outer  worlds  beyond 
the  continent.  The  narrow  Nile  valley  alone 
presented  physical  barriers  formidable  enough 
to  keep  back  the  invading  barbarians  of  the 
south,  and  even  then  with  difficulty.  Elsewhere 
communication  was  all  too  easy.  For  a while  the 
Congo  forests  fended  away  the  restless,  but  this 
only  temporarily. 

On  the  whole  Africa  from  the  Sahara  to  the 
Cape  offered  no  great  physical  barrier  to  the 
invader,  and  we  continually  have  whirlwinds 
of  invading  hosts  rushing  now  southward,  now 
northward,  from  the  interior  to  the  coast  and 


AFRICAN  CULTURE 


107 


from  the  coast  inland,  and  hurling  their  force 
against  states,  kingdoms,  and  cities.  Some  re- 
sisted for  generations,  some  for  centuries,  some 
but  a few  years.  It  is,  then,  this  sudden  change 
and  the  fear  of  it  that  marks  African  culture, 
particularly  in  its  political  aspects,  and  which 
makes  it  so  difficult  to  trace  this  changing  past. 
Nevertheless  beneath  all  change  rests  the  strong 
substructure  of  custom,  religion,  industry,  and 
art  well  worth  the  attention  of  students. 

Starting  with  agriculture,  we  learn  that 
“among  all  the  great  groups  of  the  ‘natural’ 
races,  the  Negroes  are  the  best  and  keenest 
tillers  of  the  ground.  A minority  despise 
agriculture  and  breed  cattle;  many  combine 
both  occupations.  Among  the  genuine  tillers 
the  whole  life  of  the  family  is  taken  up  in  agri- 
culture, and  hence  the  months  are  by  preference 
called  after  the  operations  which  they  demand. 
Constant  clearings  change  forests  to  fields,  and 
the  ground  is  manured  with  the  ashes  of  the  burnt 
thicket.  In  the  middle  of  the  fields  rise  the  light 
watch-towers,  from  which  a watchman  scares 
grain-eating  birds  and  other  thieves.  An  African 
cultivated  landscape  is  incomplete  without  barns. 
The  rapidity  with  which,  when  newly  imported, 
the  most  various  forms  of  cultivation  spread  in 
Africa  says  much  for  the  attention  which  is 
devoted  to  this  branch  of  economy.  Industries, 
again,  which  may  be  called  agricultural,  like  the 
preparation  of  meal  from  millet  and  other  crops, 
also  from  cassava,  the  fabrication  of  fermented 


108 


THE  NEGRO 


drinks  from  grain,  or  the  manufacture  of  cotton, 
are  widely  known  and  sedulously  fostered.”  1 

Bucher  reminds  us  of  the  deep  impression  made 
upon  travelers  when  they  sight  suddenly  the 
well-attended  fields  of  the  natives  on  emerging 
from  the  primeval  forests.  “In  the  more  thickly 
populated  parts  of  Africa  these  fields  often  stretch 
for  many  a mile,  and  the  assiduous  care  of  the 
Negro  women  shines  in  all  the  brighter  light  when 
we  consider  the  insecurity  of  life,  the  constant 
feuds  and  pillages,  in  which  no  one  knows  whether 
he  will  in  the  end  be  able  to  harvest  what  he  has 
sown.  Livingstone  gives  somewhere  a graphic 
description  of  the  devastations  wrought  by  slave 
hunts;  the  people  were  lying  about  slain,  the 
dwellings  were  demolished;  in  the  fields,  however, 
the  grain  was  ripening  and  there  was  none  to 
harvest  it.”  2 

Sheep,  goat,  and  chickens  are  domestic  animals 
all  over  Africa,  and  Von  Franzius  considers  Africa 
the  home  of  the  house  cattle  and  the  Negro  as  the 
original  tamer.  Northeastern  Africa  especially 
is  noted  for  agriculture,  cattle  raising,  and  fruit 
culture.  In  the  eastern  Sudan,  and  among  the 
great  Bantu  tribes  extending  from  the  Sudan 
down  toward  the  south,  cattle  are  evidences  of 
wealth;  one  tribe,  for  instance,  having  so  many 
oxen  that  each  village  had  ten  or  twelve  thou- 
sand head.  Lenz  (1884),  Bouet-Williaumez 
(1848),  Hecquard  (1854),  Bosman  (1805),  and 

1 Ratzel : History  of  Mankind,  II,  380  ff . 

1 Industrial  Evolution,  p.  47. 


AFRICAN  CULTURE 


109 


Baker  (1868)  all  bear  witness  to  this,  and 
Schweinfurth  (1878)  tells  us  of  great  cattle  parks 
with  two  to  three  thousand  head  and  of  numerous 
agricultural  and  cattle-raising  tribes.  Von  der 
Decken  (1859-61)  described  the  paradise  of  the 
dwellers  about  Kilimanjaro  — the  bananas,  fruit, 
beans  and  peas,  cattle  raising  with  stall  feed,  the 
fertilizing  of  the  fields,  and  irrigation.  The 
Negroid  Gallas  have  seven  or  eight  cattle  to 
each  inhabitant.  Livingstone  bears  witness  to 
the  busy  cattle  raising  of  the  Bantus  and  Kaffirs. 
Hulub  (1881)  and  Chapman  (1868)  tell  of  agri- 
culture and  fruit  raising  in  South  Africa.  Shutt 
(1884)  found  the  tribes  in  the  southwestern 
basin  of  the  Congo  with  sheep,  swine,  goats, 
and  cattle.  On  this  agricultural  and  cattle- 
raising economic  foundation  has  arisen  the  or- 
ganized industry  of  the  artisan,  the  trader,  and 
the  manufacturer. 

While  the  Pygmies,  still  living  in  the  age  of 
wood,  make  no  iron  or  stone  implements,  they 
seem  to  know  how  to  make  bark  cloth  and  fiber 
baskets  and  simple  outfits  for  hunting  and  fishing. 
Among  the  Bushmen  the  art  of  making  weapons 
and  working  in  hides  is  quite  common.  The 
Hottentots  are  further  advanced  in  the  indus- 
trial arts,  being  well  versed  in  the  manufacture 
of  clothing,  weapons,  and  utensils.  In  the  dress- 
ing of  skins  and  furs,  as  well  as  in  the  plaiting  of 
cords  and  the  weaving  of  mats,  we  find  evidences 
of  their  workmanship.  In  addition  they  are  good 
workers  in  iron  and  copper,  using  the  sheepskin 


110 


THE  NEGRO 


bellows  for  this  purpose.  The  Ashantis  of  the 
Gold  Coast  know  how  to  make  “cotton  fabrics, 
turn  and  glaze  earthenware,  forge  iron,  fabricate 
instruments  and  arms,  embroider  rugs  and  car- 
pets, and  set  gold  and  precious  stones.  ” 1 
Among  the  people  of  the  banana  zone  we  find 
rough  basket  work,  coarse  pottery,  grass  cloth, 
and  spoons  made  of  wood  and  ivory.  The  people 
of  the  millet  zone,  because  of  uncertain  agri- 
cultural resources,  quite  generally  turn  to  manu- 
facturing. Charcoal  is  prepared  by  the  smiths, 
iron  is  smelted,  and  numerous  implements  are 
manufactured.  Among  them  we  find  axes, 
hatchets,  hoes,  knives,  nails,  scythes,  and  other 
hardware.  Cloaks,  shoes,  sandals,  shields,  and 
water  and  oil  vessels  are  made  from  leather 
which  the  natives  have  dressed.  Soap  is  manu- 
factured in  the  Bautschi  district,  glass  is  made, 
formed,  and  colored  by  the  people  of  Nupeland, 
and  in  almost  every  city  cotton  is  spun  and  woven 
and  dyed.  Barth  tells  us  that  the  weaving  of 
cotton  was  known  in  the  Sudan  as  early  as  the 
eleventh  century.  There  is  also  extensive  manu- 
facture of  wooden  ware,  tools,  implements,  and 
utensils. 

In  describing  particular  tribes,  Baker  and 
Felkin  tell  of  smiths  of  wonderful  adroitness, 
goatskins  prepared  better  than  a European  tanner 
could  do,  drinking  cups  and  kegs  of  remarkable 
symmetry,  and  polished  clay  floors.  Schwein- 

1 These  and  other  references  in  this  chapter  are  from 
Schneider:  Cultur-fahigkrit  des  Negert. 


AFRICAN  CULTURE 


111 


furth  says,  “The  arrow  and  the  spear  heads  are 
of  the  finest  and  most  artistic  work;  their  bristle- 
like  barbs  and  points  are  baffling  when  one 
knows  how  few  tools  these  smiths  have.”  Ex- 
cellent wood  carving  is  found  among  the  Bongo, 
Ovambo,  and  Makololo.  Pottery  and  basketry 
and  careful  hut  building  distinguish  many  tribes. 
Cameron  (1877)  tells  of  villages  so  clean,  with 
huts  so  artistic,  that,  save  in  book  knowledge, 
the  people  occupied  no  low  plane  of  civilization. 
The  Mangbettu  work  both  iron  and  copper. 
“The  masterpieces  of  the  Monbutto  [Mang- 
bettu] smiths  are  the  fine  chains  worn  as  orna- 
ments, and  which  in  perfection  of  form  and  fine- 
ness compare  well  with  our  best  steel  chains.” 
Shubotz  in  1911  called  the  Mangbettu  “a  highly 
cultivated  people”  in  architecture  and  handi- 
craft. Barth  found  copper  exported  from  Cen- 
tral Africa  in  competition  with  European  copper 
at  Kano. 

Nor  is  the  iron  industry  confined  to  the  Sudan. 
About  the  Great  Lakes  and  other  parts  of  Cen- 
tral Africa  it  is  widely  distributed.  Thornton 
says,  “This  iron  industry  proves  that  the  East 
Africans  stand  by  no  means  on  so  low  a plane  of 
culture  as  many  travelers  would  have  us  think. 
It  is  unnecessary  to  be  reminded  what  a people 
without  instruction,  and  with  the  rudest  tools  to 
do  such  skilled  work,  could  do  if  furnished  with 
steel  tools.”  Arrows  made  east  of  Lake  Nyanza 
were  found  to  be  nearly  as  good  as  the  best  Swed- 
ish iron  in  Birmingham.  From  Egypt  to  the 


112 


THE  NEGRO 


Cape,  Livingstone  assures  us  that  the  mortar 
and  pestle,  the  long-handled  axe,  the  goatskin 
bellows,  etc.,  have  the  same  form,  size,  etc., 
pointing  to  a migration  south  westward.  Holub 
(1879),  on  the  Zambesi,  found  fine  workers  in 
iron  and  bronze.  The  Bantu  huts  contain 
spoons,  wooden  dishes,  milk  pails,  calabashes, 
handmills,  and  axes. 

Kaffirs  and  Zulus,  in  the  extreme  south,  are 
good  smiths,  and  the  latter  melt  copper  and 
tin  together  and  draw  wire  from  it,  according 
to  Kranz  (1880).  West  of  the  Great  Lakes, 
Stanley  (1878)  found  wonderful  examples  of 
smith  work:  figures  worked  out  of  brass  and 
much  work  in  copper.  Cameron  (1878)  saw  vases 
made  near  Lake  Tanganyika  which  reminded 
him  of  the  amphorse  in  the  Villa  of  Diomedes, 
Pompeii.  Horn  (1882)  praises  tribes  here  for 
iron  and  copper  work.  Livingstone  (1871)  passed 
thirty  smelting  houses  in  one  journey,  and  Cam- 
eron came  across  bellows  with  valves,  and  tribes 
who  used  knives  in  eating.  He  found  tribes  which 
no  Europeans  had  ever  visited,  who  made  ingots 
of  copper  in  the  form  of  the  St.  Andrew’s  cross, 
which  circulated  even  to  the  coast.  In  the 
southern  Congo  basin  iron  and  copper  are  worked; 
also  wood  and  ivory  carving  and  pottery  making 
are  pursued.  In  equatorial  West  Africa,  Lenz 
and  Du  Chaillu  (1861)  found  iron  workers  with 
charcoal,  and  also  carvers  of  bone  and  ivory. 
Near  Cape  Lopez,  Htibbe-Schleiden  found  tribes 
making  ivory  needles  inlaid  with  ebony,  while 


AFRICAN  CULTURE 


113 


the  arms  and  dishes  of  the  Osaka  are  found 
among  many  tribes  even  as  far  as  the  Atlantic 
Ocean.  Wilson  (1856)  found  natives  in  West 
Africa  who  could  repair  American  watches. 

Gold  Coast  Negroes  make  gold  rings  and  chains, 
forming  the  metal  into  all  kinds  of  forms. 
Soyaux  says,  “The  works  in  relief  which  natives 
of  Lower  Guinea  carve  with  their  own  knives  out 
of  ivory  and  hippopotamus  teeth  are  really  en- 
titled to  be  called  works  of  art,  and  many  wooden 
figures  of  fetishes  in  the  Ethnographical  Museum 
of  Berlin  show  some  understanding  of  the  pro- 
portions of  the  human  body.”  Great  Bassam 
is  called  by  Hecquard  the  “Fatherland  of 
Smiths.”  The  Mandingo  in  the  northwest  are 
remarkable  workers  in  iron,  silver,  and  gold,  we 
are  told  by  Mungo  Park  (1800),  while  there  is 
a mass  of  testimony  as  to  the  work  in  the  north- 
west of  Africa  in  gold,  tin,  weaving,  and  dyeing. 
Caille  found  the  Negroes  in  Bambana  manu- 
facturing gunpowder  (1824-28),  and  the  Hausa 
make  soap;  so,  too,  Negroes  in  Uganda  and 
other  parts  have  made  guns  after  seeing  Euro- 
pean models. 

So  marked  has  been  the  work  of  Negro  artisans 
and  traders  in  the  manufacture  and  exchange  of 
iron  implements  that  a growing  number  of  ar- 
cheologists are  disposed  to-day  to  consider  the 
Negro  as  the  originator  of  the  art  of  smelting  iron. 
Gabriel  de  Mortillet  (1883)  declared  Negroes 
the  only  iron  users  among  primitive  people. 
Some  would,  therefore,  argue  that  the  Negro 


114 


THE  NEGRO 


learned  it  from  other  folk,  but  Andree  declares 
that  the  Negro  developed  his  own  “Iron  King- 
dom.” Schweinfurth,  Von  Luschan,  Boaz,  and 
others  incline  to  the  belief  that  the  Negroes  in- 
vented the  smelting  of  iron  and  passed  it  on  to 
the  Egyptians  and  to  modern  Europe. 

Boaz  says,  “ It  seems  likely  that  at  a time  when 
the  European  was  still  satisfied  with  rude  stone 
tools,  the  African  had  invented  or  adopted  the 
art  of  smelting  iron.  Consider  for  a moment 
what  this  invention  has  meant  for  the  advance 
of  the  human  race.  As  long  as  the  hammer, 
knife,  saw,  drill,  the  spade,  and  the  hoe  had  to 
be  chipped  out  of  stone,  or  had  to  be  made  of 
shell  or  hard  wood,  effective  industrial  work  was 
not  impossible,  but  difficult.  A great  progress 
was  made  when  copper  found  in  large  nuggets 
was  hammered  out  into  tools  and  later  on  shaped 
by  melting,  and  when  bronze  was  introduced; 
but  the  true  advancement  of  industrial  life  did 
not  begin  until  the  hard  iron  was  discovered. 
It  seems  not  unlikely  that  the  people  who  made 
the  marvelous  discovery  of  reducing  iron  ores  by 
smelting  were  the  African  Negroes.  Neither 
ancient  Europe,  nor  ancient  western  Asia,  nor 
ancient  China  knew  the  iron,  and  everything 
points  to  its  introduction  from  Africa.  At  the 
time  of  the  great  African  discoveries  toward  the 
end  of  the  past  century,  the  trade  of  the  black- 
smith was  found  all  over  Africa,  from  north  to 
south  and  from  east  to  west.  With  his  simple 
bellows  and  a charcoal  fire  he  reduced  the  ore 


AFRICAN  CULTURE 


115 


that  is  found  in  many  parts  of  the  continent  and 
forged  implements  of  great  usefulness  and 
beauty.”  1 

Torday  has  argued  recently,  “I  feel  convinced 
by  certain  arguments  that  seem  to  prove  to  my 
satisfaction  that  we  are  indebted  to  the  Negro 
for  the  very  keystone  of  our  modern  civilization 
and  that  we  owe  him  the  discovery  of  iron. 
That  iron  could  be  discovered  by  accident  in 
Africa  seems  beyond  doubt:  if  this  is  so  in  other 
parts  of  the  world,  I am  not  competent  to  say. 
I will  only  remind  you  that  Schweinfurth  and 
Petherick  record  the  fact  that  in  the  northern 
part  of  East  Africa  smelting  furnaces  are  worked 
without  artificial  air  current  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  Stuhlmann  and  Kollmann  found  near 
Victoria  Nyanza  that  the  natives  simply  mixed 
powdered  ore  with  charcoal  and  by  introduction 
of  air  currents  obtained  the  metal.  These  sim- 
ple processes  make  it  simple  that  iron  should 
have  been  discovered  in  East  or  Central  Africa. 
No  bronze  implements  have  ever  been  found  in 
black  Africa;  had  the  Africans  received  iron 
from  the  Egyptians,  bronze  would  have  preceded 
this  metal  and  all  traces  of  it  would  not  have 
disappeared.  Black  Africa  was  for  a long  time 
an  exporter  of  iron,  and  even  in  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury exports  to  India  and  Java  are  recorded  by 
Idrisi. 

“It  is  difficult  to  imagine  that  Egypt  should 
have  obtained  it  from  Europe  where  the  oldest 
1 Atlanta  University  Leaflet,  No.  19. 


116 


THE  NEGRO 


find  (in  Hallstadt)  cannot  be  of  an  earlier  period 
than  800  B.c.,  or  from  Asia,  where  iron  is  not 
known  before  1000  b.c.,  and  where,  in  the  times 
of  Ashur  Nazir  Pal,  it  was  still  used  concurrently 
with  bronze,  while  iron  beads  have  been  only 
recently  discovered  by  Messrs.  G.  A.  Wainwright 
and  Bushe  Fox  in  a predynastic  grave,  and  where 
a piece  of  this  metal,  possibly  a tool,  was  found 
in  the  masonry  of  the  great  pyramid.” 1 

The  Negro  is  a born  trader.  Lenz  says,  “our 
sharpest  European  merchants,  even  Jews  and 
Armenians,  can  learn  much  of  the  cunning  and 
trade  of  the  Negroes.”  We  know  that  the  trade 
between  Central  Africa  and  Egypt  was  in  the 
hands  of  Negroes  for  thousands  of  years,  and  in 
early  days  the  cities  of  the  Sudan  and  North 
Africa  grew  rich  through  Negro  trade. 

Leo  Africanus,  writing  of  Timbuktu  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  said,  “It  is  a wonder  to  see 
what  plentie  of  Merchandize  is  daily  brought 
hither  and  how  costly  and  sumptuous  all  things 
be.  . . . Here  are  many  shops  of  artificers  and 
merchants  and  especially  of  such  as  weave  linnen 
and  cloth.” 

Long  before  cotton  weaving  was  a British 
industry,  West  Africa  and  the  Sudan  were 
supplying  a large  part  of  the  world  with  cotton 
cloth.  Even  to-day  cities  like  Kuka  on  the  west 
shore  of  Lake  Chad  and  Sokota  are  manufactur- 
ing centers  where  cotton  is  spun  and  woven, 

1 Journal  of  the  Royal  Anthropological  Institute,  XLIII, 
414,  415.  Cf.  also  The  Crisis,  Vol.  IX,  p.  234. 


AFRICAN  CULTURE 


117 


skins  tanned,  implements  and  iron  ornaments 
made. 

“Travelers,”  says  Bucher,  “have  often  ob- 
served this  tribal  or  local  development  of  in- 
dustrial technique.  ‘The  native  villages,’  re- 
lates a Belgian  observer  of  the  Lower  Congo, 
“‘are  often  situated  in  groups.  Their  activities 
are  based  upon  reciprocality,  and  they  are  to  a 
certain  extent  the  complements  of  one  another. 
Each  group  has  its  more  or  less  strongly  defined 
specialty.  One  carries  on  fishing;  another  pro- 
duces palm  wine;  a third  devotes  itself  to  trade 
and  is  broker  for  the  others,  supplying  the  com- 
munity with  all  products  from  outside;  another 
has  reserved  to  itself  work  in  iron  and  copper, 
making  weapons  for  war  and  hunting,  various 
utensils,  etc.  None  may,  however,  pass  beyond 
the  sphere  of  its  own  specialty  without  exposing 
itself  to  the  risk  of  being  universally  proscribed.’  ” 

From  the  Loango  Coast,  Bastian  tells  of  a ( 
great  number  of  centers  for  special  products 
of  domestic  industry.  “ Loango  excels  in  mats 
and  fishing  baskets,  while  the  carving  of  ele- 
phants’ tusks  is  specially  followed  in  Chilungo. 
The  so-called  Mafooka  hats  with  raised  pat- 
terns are  drawn  chiefly  from  the  bordering  coun- 
try of  Kakongo  and  Mayyume.  In  Bakunya 
are  made  potter’s  wares,  which  are  in  great  de- 
mand; in  Basanza,  excellent  swords;  in  Basundi, 
especially  beautiful  ornamented  copper  rings; 
on  the  Congo,  clever  wood  and  tablet  carvings; 
in  Loango,  ornamented  clothes  and  intricately 


118 


THE  NEGRO 


designed  mats;  in  Mayumbe,  clothing  of  finely 
woven  mat-work;  in  Kakongo,  embroidered  hats 
and  also  burnt  clay  pitchers;  and  among  the 
Bayakas  and  Mantetjes,  stuffs  of  woven  grass.”  1 

A native  Negro  student  tells  of  the  develop- 
ment of  trade  among  the  Ashanti.  “It  was  a 
part  of  the  state  system  of  Ashanti  to  encour- 
age trade.  The  king  once  in  every  forty  days, 
at  the  Adai  custom,  distributed  among  a number 
of  chiefs  various  sums  of  gold  dust  with  a charge 
to  turn  the  same  to  good  account.  These  chiefs 
then  sent  down  to  the  coast  caravans  of  trades- 
men, some  of  whom  would  be  their  slaves,  some- 
times some  two  or  three  hundred  strong,  to 
barter  ivory  for  European  goods,  or  buy  such 
goods  with  gold  dust,  which  the  king  obtained 
from  the  royal  alluvial  workings.  Down  to  1873 
a constant  stream  of  Ashanti  traders  might  be 
seen  daily  wending  their  way  to  the  merchants 
of  the  coast  and  back  again,  yielding  more  cer- 
tain wealth  and  prosperity  to  the  merchants  of 
the  Gold  Coast  and  Great  Britain  than  may  be 
expected  for  some  time  yet  to  come  from  the 
mining  industry  and  railway  development  put 
together.  The  trade  chiefs  would,  in  due  time, 
render  a faithful  account  to  the  king’s  stewards, 
being  allowed  to  retain  a fair  portion  of  the 
profit.  In  the  king’s  household,  too,  he  would 
have  special  men  who  directly  traded  for  him. 
Important  chiefs  carried  on  the  same  system 

1 Bticher:  Industrial  Revolution  (tr.  by  Wickett),  pp. 
57-58. 


AFRICAN  CULTURE 


119 


of  trading  with  the  coast  as  did  the  king.  Thus 
every  member  of  the  state,  from  the  king  down- 
ward, took  an  active  interest  in  the  promotion 
of  trade  and  in  the  keeping  open  of  trade  routes 
into  the  interior.”  1 

The  trade  thus  encouraged  and  carried  on  in 
various  parts  of  West  Africa  reached  wide  areas. 
From  the  Fish  River  to  Kuka,  and  from  Lagos 
to  Zanzibar,  the  markets  have  become  great 
centers  of  trade,  the  leading  implement  to  civiliza- 
tion. Permanent  markets  are  found  in  places 
like  Ujiji  and  Nyangwe,  where  everything  can 
be  bought  and  sold  from  earthenware  to  wives; 
from  the  one  to  three  thousand  traders  flocked 
here. 

“How  like  is  the  market  traffic,  with  all  its 
uproar  and  sound  of  human  voices,  to  one  of  our 
own  markets ! There  is  the  same  rivalry  in  prais- 
ing the  goods,  the  violent,  brisk  movements,  the 
expressive  gesture,  the  inquiring,  searching  glance, 
the  changing  looks  of  depreciation  or  triumph, 
of  apprehension,  delight,  approbation.  So  says 
Stanley.  Trade  customs  are  not  everywhere  alike. 
If  when  negotiating  with  the  Bangalas  of  Angola 
you  do  not  quickly  give  them  what  they  want, 
they  go  away  and  do  not  come  back.  Then 
perhaps  they  try  to  get  possession  of  the  coveted 
object  by  means  of  theft.  It  is  otherwise  with 
the  Songos  and  Kiokos,  who  let  you  deal  with 
them  in  the  usual  way.  To  buy  even  a small 
article  you  must  go  to  the  market;  people  avoid 
1 Hayford:  Native  Institutions,  pp.  95-96. 


120 


THE  NEGRO 


trading  anywhere  else.  If  a man  says  to  another; 
‘Sell  me  this  hen’  or  ‘that  fruit,’  the  answer  as 
a rule  will  be,  ‘Come  to  the  market  place.’  The 
crowd  gives  confidence  to  individuals,  and  the 
inviolability  of  the  visitor  to  the  market,  and  of 
the  market  itself,  looks  like  an  idea  of  justice  con- 
secrated by  long  practice.  Does  not  this  remind 
us  of  the  old  Germanic  ‘market  place’  ?”  1 

Turning  now  to  Negro  family  and  social  life 
we  find,  as  among  all  primitive  peoples,  polyg- 
amy and  marriage  by  actual  or  simulated  pur- 
chase. Out  of  the  family  develops  the  typical 
African  village  organization,  which  is  thus  de- 
scribed in  Ashanti  by  a native  Gold  Coast  writer : 
“The  headman,  as  his  name  implies,  is  the  head 
of  a village  community,  a ward  in  a township,  or 
of  a family.  His  position  is  important,  inasmuch 
as  he  has  directly  to  deal  with  the  composite 
elements  of  the  general  bulk  of  the  people. 

“ It  is  the  duty  of  the  head  of  a family  to  bring 
up  the  members  thereof  in  the  way  they  should 
go;  and  by  ‘family’  you  must  understand  the 
entire  lineal  descendants  of  a materfamilias,  if 
I may  coin  a convenient  phrase.  It  is  expected 
of  him  by  the  state  to  bring  up  his  charge  in  the 
knowledge  of  matters  political  and  traditional. 
It  is  his  work  to  train  up  his  wards  in  the  ways 
of  loyalty  and  obedience  to  the  powers  that  be. 
He  is  held  responsible  for  the  freaks  of  recalcitrant 
members  of  his  family,  and  he  is  looked  to  to 
keep  them  within  bounds  and  to  insist  upon 
1 Ratzel,  II.  376. 


AFRICAN  CULTURE 


121 


conformity  of  their  party  with  the  customs,  laws, 
and  traditional  observances  of  the  community. 
In  early  times  he  could  send  off  to  exile  by  sale 
a troublesome  relative  who  would  not  observe 
the  laws  of  the  community. 

“It  is  a difficult  task  that  he  is  set  to,  but  in 
this  matter  he  has  all-powerful  helpers  in  the 
female  members  of  the  family,  who  will  be  either 
the  aunts,  or  the  sisters,  or  the  cousins,  or  the 
nieces  of  the  headman;  and  as  their  interests  are 
identical  with  his  in  every  particular,  the  good 
women  spontaneously  train  up  their  children  to 
implicit  obedience  to  the  headman,  whose  rule 
in  the  family  thus  becomes  a simple  and  an  easy 
matter.  ‘The  hand  that  rocks  the  cradle  rules 
the  world.’  What  a power  for  good  in  the  native 
state  system  would  the  mothers  of  the  Gold 
Coast  and  Ashanti  become  by  judicious  training 
upon  native  lines! 

“The  headman  is  par  excellence  the  judge  of 
his  family  or  ward.  Not  only  is  he  called  upon 
to  settle  domestic  squabbles,  but  frequently  he 
sits  judge  over  more  serious  matters  arising  be- 
tween one  member  of  the  ward  and  another; 
and  where  he  is  a man  of  ability  and  influence, 
men  from  other  wards  bring  him  their  disputes 
to  settle.  When  he  so  settles  disputes,  he  is 
entitled  to  a hearing  fee,  which,  however,  is  not 
so  much  as  would  be  payable  in  the  regular  court 
of  the  king  or  chief. 

“The  headman  is  naturally  an  important 
member  of  his  company  and  often  is  a captain 


122 


THE  NEGRO 


thereof.  When  he  combines  the  two  offices  of 
headman  and  captain,  he  renders  to  the  commu- 
nity a very  important  service.  For  in  times  of 
war,  where  the  members  of  the  ward  would  not 
serve  cordially  under  a stranger,  they  would  in  all 
cases  face  any  danger  with  their  own  kinsman 
as  their  leader.  The  headman  is  always  suc- 
ceeded by  his  uterine  brother,  cousin,  or  nephew 
— the  line  of  succession,  that  is  to  say,  following 
the  customary  law.”  1 

We  may  contrast  this  picture  with  the  more 
warlike  Bantus  of  Southeast  Africa.  Each 
tribe  lived  by  itself  in  a town  with  from  five  to 
fifteen  thousand  inhabitants,  surrounded  by 
gardens  of  millet,  beans,  and  watermelon. 
Beyond  these  roamed  their  cattle,  sheep,  and 
goats.  Their  religion  was  ancestor  worship  with 
sacrifice  to  spirits  and  the  dead,  and  some  of  the 
tribes  made  mummies  of  the  corpses  and  clothed 
them  for  burial.  They  wove  cloth  of  cotton  and 
bark,  they  carved  wood  and  built  walls  of  un- 
hewn stone.  They  had  a standing  military  or- 
ganization, and  the  tribes  had  their  various  totems, 
so  that  they  were  known  as  the  Men  of  Iron,  the 
Men  of  the  Sun,  the  Men  of  the  Serpents,  Sons 
of  the  Corn  Cleaners,  and  the  like.  Their  sys- 
tem of  common  law  was  well  conceived  and  there 
were  organized  tribunals  of  justice.  In  difficult 
cases  precedents  were  sought  and  learned  anti- 
quaries consulted.  At  the  age  of  fifteen  or  sixteen 
the  boys  were  circumcised  and  formed  into 
1 Hay  ford:  Native  lmtitutions,  pp.  76  ff. 


AFRICAN  CULTURE 


123 


guilds.  The  land  was  owned  by  the  tribe  and 
apportioned  to  the  chief  by  each  family,  and  the 
main  wealth  of  the  tribe  was  in  its  cattle. 

In  general,  among  the  African  clans  the  idea 
of  private  property  was  but  imperfectly  developed 
and  never  included  land.  The  main  mass  of 
visible  wealth  belonged  to  the  family  and  clan 
rather  than  to  the  individual;  only  in  the  matter 
of  weapons  and  ornaments  was  exclusive  private 
ownership  generally  recognized. 

The  government,  vested  in  fathers  and  chiefs, 
varied  in  different  tribes  from  absolute  despotisms 
to  limited  monarchies,  almost  republican.  View- 
ing the  Basuto  National  Assembly  in  South 
Africa,  Lord  Bryce  recently  wrote,  “The  resem- 
blance to  the  primary  assemblies  of  the  early 
peoples  of  Europe  is  close  enough  to  add  another 
to  the  arguments  which  discredit  the  theory  that 
there  is  any  such  thing  as  an  Aryan  type  of  in- 
stitutions.” 1 

While  women  are  sold  into  marriage  through- 
out Africa,  nevertheless  their  status  is  far  re- 
moved from  slavery.  In  the  first  place  the  tracing 
of  relationships  through  the  female  line,  which  is 
all  but  universal  in  Africa,  gives  the  mother  great 
influence.  Parental  affection  is  very  strong,  and 
throughout  Negro  Africa  the  mother  is  the  most 
influential  councilor,  even  in  cases  of  tyrants 
like  Chaka  or  Mutesa. 

“No  mother  can  love  more  tenderly  or  be  more 
deeply  beloved  than  the  Negro  mother.  Robin 
1 Impressions  of  South  Africa,  3d  ed.,  p.  352. 


124 


THE  NEGRO 


tells  of  a slave  in  Martinique  who,  with  his 
savings,  freed  his  mother  instead  of  himself. 
‘Everywhere  in  Africa,’  writes  Mungo  Park, 
‘I  have  noticed  that  no  greater  affront  can  be 
offered  a Negro  than  insulting  his  mother. 
‘Strike  me,’  cried  a Mandingo  to  his  enemy, 
‘but  revile  not  my  mother!’  . . . The  Herero 
swears  ‘By  my  mother’s  tears!’  . . The  Angola 
Negroes  have  a saying,  ‘As  a mist  lingers  on  the 
swamps,  so  lingers  the  love  of  father  and 
another.’”  1 

Black  queens  have  often  ruled  African  tribes. 
Among  the  Ba-Lolo,  we  are  told,  women  take 
part  in  public  assemblies  where  all-important 
questions  are  discussed.  The  system  of  educat- 
ing children  among  such  tribes  as  the  Yoruba  is 
worthy  of  emulation  by  many  more  civilized 
peoples. 

Close  knit  with  the  family  and  social  organiza- 
tion comes  the  religious  life  of  the  Negro.  The 
religion  of  Africa  is  the  universal  animism  or 
fetishism  of  primitive  peoples,  rising  to  polythe- 
ism and  approaching  monotheism  chiefly,  but 
not  wholly,  as  a result  of  Christian  and  Islamic 
missions.  Of  fetishism  there  is  much  misap- 
prehension. It  is  not  mere  senseless  degrada- 
tion. It  is  a philosophy  of  life.  Among  primitive 
Negroes  there  can  be,  as  Miss  Kingsley  reminds 
us,  no  such  divorce  of  religion  from  practical  life 
as  is  common  in  civilized  lands.  Religion  is  life, 
and  fetish  an  expression  of  the  practical  recog- 
1 William  Schneider. 


AFRICAN  CULTURE 


125 


nition  of  dominant  forces  in  which  the  Negro 
lives.  To  him  all  the  world  is  spirit.  Miss 
Kingsley  says,  “If  you  want,  for  example,  to 
understand  the  position  of  man  in  nature  accord- 
ing to  fetish,  there  is,  as  far  as  I know,  no  clearer 
statement  of  it  made  than  is  made  by  Goethe 
in  his  superb  ‘Prometheus.’”1  Fetish  is  a 
severely  logical  way  of  accounting  for  the  world 
in  terms  of  good  and  malignant  spirits. 

“It  is  this  power  of  being  able  logically  to 
account  for  everything  that  is,  I believe,  at  the 
back  of  the  tremendous  permanency  of  fetish 
in  Africa,  and  the  cause  of  many  of  the  relapses 
into  it  by  Africans  converted  to  other  religions; 
it  is  also  the  explanation  of  the  fact  that  white 
men  who  live  in  the  districts  where  death  and 
danger  are  everyday  affairs,  under  a grim  pall 
of  boredom,  are  liable  to  believe  in  fetish,  though 
ashamed  of  so  doing.  For  the  African,  whose 
mind  has  been  soaked  in  fetish  during  his  early 
and  most  impressionable  years,  the  voice  of 
fetish  is  almost  irresistible  when  affliction  comes 
to  him.”  2 

Ellis  tells  us  of  the  spirit  belief  of  the  Ewe 
people,  who  believe  that  men  and  all  nature  have 
the  indwelling  “Kra,”  which  is  immortal;  that 
the  man  himself  after  death  may  exist  as  a ghost, 
which  is  often  conceived  of  as  departed  from  the 
“Kra,”  a shadowy  continuing  of  the  man. 
Bryce,  speaking  of  the  Kaffirs  of  South  Africa, 

1 West  African  Studies,  Chap.  V. 

1 Op.  cit. 


126 


THE  NEGRO 


says,  “To  the  Kaffirs,  as  to  the  most  savage 
races,  the  world  was  full  of  spirits  — spirits  of 
the  rivers,  the  mountains,  and  the  woods.  Most 
important  were  the  ghosts  of  the  dead,  who  had 
power  to  injure  or  help  the  living,  and  who 
were,  therefore,  propitiated  by  offerings  at 
stated  periods,  as  well  as  on  occasions  when 
their  aid  was  especially  desired.  This  kind  of 
worship,  the  worship  once  most  generally  dif- 
fused throughout  the  world,  and  which  held  its 
ground  among  the  Greeks  and  Italians  in  the 
most  flourishing  period  of  ancient  civilization, 
as  it  does  in  China  and  Japan  to-day,  was,  and 
is,  virtually  the  religion  of  the  Kaffirs.”  1 

African  religion  does  not,  however,  stop  with 
fetish,  but,  as  in  the  case  of  other  peoples, 
tends  toward  polytheism  and  monotheism. 
Among  the  Yoruba,  for  instance,  Frobenius 
shows  that  religion  and  city-state  go  hand  in 
hand. 

“The  first  experienced  glance  will  here  detect 
the  fact  that  this  nation  originally  possessed  a 
clear  and  definite  organization  so  duly  ordered 
and  so  logical  that  we  but  seldom  meet  with  its 
like  among  all  the  peoples  of  the  earth.  And  the 
basic  idea  of  every  clan’s  progeniture  is  a powerful 
God;  the  legitimate  order  in  which  the  descend- 
ants of  a particular  clan  unite  in  marriage  to 
found  new  families,  the  essential  origin  of  every 
new-born  babe’s  descent  in  the  founder  of  its 
race  and  its  consideration  as  a part  of  the  God  in 
1 Imprearions  of  South  Africa. 


AFRICAN  CULTURE 


127 


Chief;  the  security  with  which  the  newly  wedded 
wife  not  only  may,  but  should,  minister  to  her 
own  God  in  an  unfamiliar  home.”  1 

The  Yoruba  have  a legend  of  a dying  divinity. 
“This  people  . . . give  evidence  of  a generalized 
system;  a theocratic  scheme,  a well-conceived 
perceptible  organization,  reared  in  rhythmically 
proportioned  manner.” 

Miss  Kingsley  says,  “The  African  has  a great 
Over  God.”2  Nassau,  the  missionary,  declares, 
“After  more  than  forty  years’  residence  among 
these  tribes,  fluently  using  their  language,  con- 
versant with  their  customs,  dwelling  intimately 
in  their  huts,  associating  with  them  in  the  various 
relations  of  teacher,  pastor,  friend,  master,  fellow- 
traveler,  and  guest,  and  in  my  special  office  as 
missionary,  searching  after  their  religious  thought 
(and  therefore  being  allowed  a deeper  entrance 
into  the  arcana  of  their  sold  than  would  be  ac- 
corded to  a passing  explorer),  I am  able  unhesi- 
tatingly to  say  that  among  all  the  multitude  of 
degraded  ones  with  whom  I have  met,  I have  seen 
or  heard  of  none  whose  religious  thought  was 
only  a superstition. 

“Standing  in  the  village  street,  surrounded  by 
a company  whom  their  chief  has  courteously  sum- 
moned at  my  request,  when  I say  to  him,  ‘I 
have  come  to  speak  to  your  people,’  I do  not  need 
to  begin  by  telling  them  that  there  is  a God. 
Looking  on  that  motley  assemblage  of  villagers, 

1 Frobenius:  Voice  of  Africa,  Vol.  I. 

J West  African  Studies,  p.  107. 


128 


THE  NEGRO 


— the  bold,  gaunt  cannibal  with  his  armament  of 
gun,  spear,  and  dagger;  the  artisan  with  rude 
adze  in  hand,  or  hands  soiled  at  the  antique 
bellows  of  the  village  smithy;  women  who  have 
hasted  from  their  kitchen  fire  with  hands  white 
with  the  manioc  dough  or  still  grasping  the 
partly  scaled  fish;  and  children  checked  in  their 
play  with  tiny  bow  and  arrow  or  startled  from 
their  dusty  street  pursuit  of  dog  or  goat,  — 
I have  yet  to  be  asked,  ‘Who  is  God?’”  1 

The  basis  of  Egyptian  religion  was  “of  a 
purely  Nigritian  character,”  2 and  in  its  devel- 
oped form  Sudanese  tribal  gods  were  invoked 
and  venerated  by  the  priests.  In  Upper  Egypt, 
near  the  confines  of  Ethiopia,  paintings  re- 
peatedly represent  black  priests  conferring  on 
red  Egyptian  priests  the  instruments  and  sym- 
bols of  priesthood.  In  the  Sudan  to-day  Fro- 
benius  distinguishes  four  principal  religions: 
first,  earthly  ancestor  worship;  next,  the  social 
cosmogony  of  the  Atlantic  races;  third,  the 
religion  of  the  Bori,  and  fourth,  Islam.  The 
Bori  religion  spreads  from  Nubia  as  far  as 
the  Hausa,  and  from  Lake  Chad  in  the  Niger  as 
far  as  the  Yoruba.  It  is  the  religion  of  possession 
and  has  been  connected  by  some  with  Asiatic 
influences. 

From  without  have  come  two  great  religious 
influences,  Islam  and  Christianity.  Islam  came 
by  conquest,  trade,  and  proselytism.  As  a con- 

1 Nassau:  Fetishism  in  West  Africa,  p.  36. 

* Encyclopedia  Britannica,  9th  ed.,  XX,  362. 


AFRICAN  CULTURE 


129 


queror  it  reached  Egypt  in  the  seventh  century 
and  had  by  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century 
firm  footing  in  the  Egyptian  Sudan.  It  overran 
the  central  Sudan  by  the  close  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  and  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 
century  had  swept  over  Senegambia  and  the 
whole  valley  of  the  Niger  down  to  the  Gulf  of 
Guinea.  On  the  east  Islam  approached  as  a 
trader  in  the  eighth  century;  it  spread  into 
Somaliland  and  overran  Nubia  in  the  fourteenth 
century.  To-day  Islam  dominates  Africa  north 
of  ten  degrees  north  latitude  and  is  strong 
between  five  and  ten  degrees  north  latitude.  In 
the  east  it  reaches  below  the  Victoria  Nyanza. 

Christianity  early  entered  Africa;  indeed,  as 
Mommsen  says,  “It  was  through  Africa  that 
Christianity  became  the  religion  of  the  world. 
Tertullian  and  Cyprian  were  from  Carthage, 
Arnobius  from  Sicca  Veneria,  Lactantius,  and 
probably  in  like  manner  Minucius  Felix,  in  spite 
of  their  Latin  names,  were  natives  of  Africa,  and 
not  less  so  Augustine.  In  Africa  the  Church  found 
its  most  zealous  confessors  of  the  faith  and  its 
most  gifted  defenders.”  1 

The  Africa  referred  to  here,  however,  was  not 
Negroland,  but  Africa  above  the  desert,  where 
Negro  blood  was  represented  in  the  ancient 
Mediterranean  race  and  by  intercourse  across  the 
desert.  On  the  other  hand  Christianity  was  early 
represented  in  the  valley  of  the  Nile  under  “the 
most  holy  pope  and  patriarch  of  the  great  city 
1 The  African  Provinces,  II,  345. 


130 


THE  NEGRO 


of  Alexandria  and  of  all  of  the  land  of  Egypt, 
of  Jerusalem,  the  holy  city,  of  Nubia,  Abyssinia, 
and  Pentapolis,  and  all  the  preaching  of  St. 
Mark.”  This  patriarchate  had  a hundred  bishop- 
rics in  the  fourth  century  and  included  thousands 
of  black  Christians.  Through  it  the  Cross  pre- 
ceded the  Crescent  in  some  of  the  remotest  parts 
of  black  Africa. 

All  these  beginnings  were  gradually  overthrown 
by  Islam  except  among  the  Copts  in  Egypt,  and 
in  Abyssinia.  The  Portuguese  in  the  sixteenth 
century  began  to  replant  the  Christian  religion 
and  for  a while  had  great  success,  both  on  the 
east  and  west  coasts.  Roman  Catholic  enter- 
prise halted  in  the  eighteenth  century  and  the 
Protestants  began.  To-day  the  west  coast  is 
studded  with  English  and  German  missions, 
South  Africa  is  largely  Christian  through  French 
and  English  influence,  and  the  region  about  the 
Great  Lakes  is  becoming  christianized.  The 
Roman  Catholics  have  lately  increased  their  ac- 
tivities, and  above  all  the  Negroes  of  America 
have  entered  with  their  own  churches  and  with 
the  curiously  significant  “Ethiopian”  move- 
ment. 

Coming  now  to  other  spiritual  aspects  of 
African  culture,  we  can  speak  at  present  only  in 
a fragmentary  way.  Roughly  speaking,  Africa 
can  be  divided  into  two  language  zones:  north 
of  the  fifth  degree  of  north  latitude  is  the  zone 
of  diversity,  with  at  least  a hundred  groups  of 
widely  divergent  languages;  south  of  the  line 


AFRICAN  CULTURE 


131 


there  is  one  minor  language  (Bushman-Hotten- 
tot),  spoken  by  less  than  fifty  thousand  people, 
and  elsewhere  the  predominant  Bantu  tongue 
with  its  various  dialects,  spoken  by  at  least 
fifty  million.  The  Bantu  tongue,  which  thus 
rules  all  Central,  West,  and  South  Africa,  is  an 
agglutinative  tongue  which  makes  especial  use 
of  prefixes.  The  hundreds  of  Negro  tongues  or 
dialects  in  the  north  represent  most  probably 
the  result  of  war  and  migration  and  the  breaking 
up  of  ancient  centers  of  culture.  In  Abyssinia 
and  the  great  horn  of  East  Africa  the  influence 
of  Semitic  tongues  is  noted.  Despite  much  effort 
on  the  part  of  students,  it  has  been  impossible 
to  show  any  Asiatic  origin  for  the  Egyptian  lan- 
guage. As  Sergi  maintains,  “everything  favors 
an  African  origin.”  1 The  most  brilliant  sugges- 
tion of  modem  days  links  together  the  Egyptian 
of  North  Africa  and  the  Hottentot  and  Bushmen 
tongues  of  South  Africa. 

Language  was  reduced  to  writing  among  the 
Egyptians  and  Ethiopians  and  to  some  extent 
elsewhere  in  Africa.  Over  100  manuscripts  of 
Ethiopian  and  Ethiopic-Arabian  literature  are 
extant,  including  a version  of  the  Bible  and  his- 
torical chronicles.  The  Arabic  was  used  as  the 
written  tongue  of  the  Sudan,  and  Negroland  has 
given  us  in  this  tongue  many  chronicles  and 
other  works  of  black  authors.  The  greatest  of 
these,  the  Epic  of  the  Sudan  (Tarikh-es-Soudan), 
deserves  to  be  placed  among  the  classics  of  all 
1 Mediterranean  Race,  p.  10. 


132 


THE  NEGRO 


literature.  In  other  parts  of  Africa  there  was 
no  written  language,  but  there  was,  on  the  other 
hand,  an  unusual  perfection  of  oral  tradition 
through  bards,  and  extraordinary  efficiency  in 
telegraphy  by  drum  and  horn. 

The  folklore  and  proverbs  of  the  African  tribes 
are  exceedingly  rich.  Some  of  these  have  been 
made  familiar  to  English  writers  through  the 
work  of  “Uncle  Remus.”  Others  have  been 
collected  by  Johnston,  Ellis,  and  Theal. 

A black  bard  of  our  own  day  has  described  the 
onslaught  of  the  Matabili  in  poetry  of  singular 
force  and  beauty: 

They  saw  the  clouds  ascend  from  the  plains: 

It  was  the  smoke  of  burning  towns. 

The  confusion  of  the  whirlwind 
Was  in  the  heart  of  the  great  chief  of  the  blue-colored  cattle. 
The  shout  was  raised, 

“They  are  friends!” 

But  they  shouted  again, 

“They  are  foes!  ” 

Till  their  near  approach  proclaimed  them  Matabili. 

The  men  seized  their  arms, 

And^rushed  out  as  if  to  chase  the  antelope. 

The  onset  was  as  the  voice  of  lightning, 

And  their  javelins  as  the  shaking  of  the  forest  in  the  autumn 
storm.1 


There  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  Negro’s  deep 
and  delicate  sense  of  beauty  in  form,  color,  and 
sound.  Soyaux  says  of  African  industry,  “Who- 
ever denies  to  them  independent  invention  and 
individual  taste  in  their  work  either  shuts  his 
eyes  intentionally  before  perfectly  evident  facts, 

1 Stowe:  Native  Races,  etc.,  pp.  553-554. 


AFRICAN  CULTURE 


133 


or  lack  of  knowledge  renders  him  an  incompetent 
judge.”  1 M.  Rutot  had  lately  told  us  how  the 
Negro  race  brought  art  and  sculpture  to  pre- 
historic Europe.  The  bones  of  the  European 
Negroids  are  almost  without  exception  found  in 
company  with  drawings  and  sculpture  in  high 
and  low  relief;  some  of  their  sculptures,  like 
the  Wellendorff  “Venus,”  are  unusually  well 
finished  for  primitive  man.  So,  too,  the  painting 
and  carving  of  the  Bushmen  and  their  fore- 
runners in  South  Africa  has  drawn  the  admira- 
tion of  students.  The  Negro  has  been  prolific  in 
the  invention  of  musical  instruments  and  has 
given  a new  and  original  music  to  the  western 
world. 

Schweinfurth,  who  has  preserved  for  us  much 
of  the  industrial  art  of  the  Negroes,  speaks  of 
their  delight  in  the  production  of  works  of  art 
for  the  embellishment  and  convenience  of  life. 
Frobenius  expressed  his  astonishment  at  the 
originality  of  the  African  in  the  Yoruba  temple 
which  he  visited.  “ The  lofty  veranda  was  divided 
from  the  passageway  by  fantastically  carved  and 
colored  pillars.  On  the  pillars  were  sculptured 
knights,  men  climbing  trees,  women,  gods,  and 
mythical  beings.  The  dark  chamber  lying  beyond 
showed  a splendid  red  room  with  stone  hatchets, 
wooden  figures,  cowry  beads,  and  jars.  The  whole 
picture,  the  columns  carved  in  colors  in  front  of 
the  colored  altar,  the  old  man  sitting  in  the  circle 
of  those  who  reverenced  him,  the  open  scaffold- 
1 Quoted  in  Schneider. 


134 


THE  NEGRO 


ing  of  ninety  rafters,  made  a magnificent  im- 
pression.” 1 

The  Germans  have  found,  in  Kamarun, 
towns  built,  castellated,  and  fortified  in  a manner 
that  reminds  one  of  the  prehistoric  cities  of 
Crete.  The  buildings  and  fortifications  of  Zym- 
babwe  have  already  been  described  and  some- 
thing has  been  said  of  the  art  of  Benin,  with  its 
brass  and  bronze  and  ivory.  All  the  work  of 
Benin  in  bronze  and  brass  was  executed  by  cast- 
ing, and  by  methods  so  complicated  that  it  would 
be  no  easy  task  for  a modern  European  craftsman 
to  imitate  them. 

Perhaps  no  race  has  shown  in  its  earlier  develop- 
ment a more  magnificent  art  impulse  than  the 
Negro,  and  the  student  must  not  forget  how  far 
Negro  genius  entered  into  the  art  in  the  valley 
of  the  Nile  from  Meroe  and  Nepata  down  to  the 
great  temples  of  Egypt. 

Frobenius  has  recently  directed  the  world’s 
attention  to  art  in  West  Africa.  Quartz  and 
granite  he  found  treated  with  great  dexterity. 
But  more  magnificent  than  the  stone  monument 
is  the  proof  that  at  some  remote  era  glass  was 
made  and  molded  in  Yorubaland  and  that  the 
people  here  were  brilliant  in  the  production  of 
terra-cotta  images.  The  great  mass  of  potsherds, 
lumps  of  glass,  heaps  of  slag,  etc.,  “proves,  at 
all  events,  that  the  glass  industry  flourished  in 
this  locality  in  ages  past.  It  is  plain  that  the 
glass  beads  found  to  have  been  so  very  common 
1 Frobenius:  Voice  of  Africa,  Vol.  I,  Chap.  XIV. 


AFRICAN  CULTURE 


135 


in  Africa  were  not  only  not  imported,  but  were 
actually  manufactured  in  great  quantities  at 
home.” 

The  terra-cotta  pieces  are  “remains  of  another 
ancient  and  fine  type  of  art”  and  were  “eloquent 
of  a symmetry,  a vitality,  a delicacy  of  form,  and 
practically  a reminiscence  of  the  ancient  Greeks.” 
The  antique  bronze  head  Frobenius  describes  as 
“a  head  of  marvelous  beauty,  wonderfully  cast,” 
and  “almost  equal  in  beauty  and,  at  least,  no 
less  noble  in  form,  and  as  ancient  as  the  terra- 
cotta heads.”  1 

In  a park  of  monuments  Frobenius  saw  the 
celebrated  forge  and  hammer:  a mighty  mass 
of  iron,  like  a falling  drop  in  shape,  and  a block 
of  quartz  fashioned  like  a drum.  Frobenius  thinks 
these  were  relics  dating  from  past  ages  of  culture, 
when  the  manipulation  of  quartz  and  granite 
was  thoroughly  understood  and  when  iron  manip- 
ulation gave  evidence  of  a skill  not  met  with 
to-day. 

Even  when  we  contemplate  such  revolting 
survivals  of  savagery  as  cannibalism  we  cannot 
jump  too  quickly  at  conclusions.  Cannibalism 
is  spread  over  many  parts  of  Negro  Africa,  yet 
the  very  tribes  who  practice  cannibalism  show 
often  other  traits  of  industry  and  power.  “ These 
cannibal  Bassonga  were,  according  to  the  types 
we  met  with,  one  of  those  rare  nations  of  the 
African  interior  which  can  be  classed  with  the 
most  esthetic  and  skilled,  most  discreet  and  in- 
1 Frobenius:  Voice  of  Africa,  Vol.  I. 


136 


THE  NEGRO 


telligent  of  all  those  generally  known  to  us  as  the 
so-called  natural  races.  Before  the  Arabic  and 
European  invasion  they  did  not  dwell  in  ‘ham- 
lets,’ but  in  towns  with  twenty  or  thirty  thousand 
inhabitants,  in  towns  whose  highways  were 
shaded  by  avenues  of  splendid  palms  planted  at 
regular  intervals  and  laid  out  with  the  symmetry 
of  colonnades.  Their  pottery  would  be  fertile 
in  suggestion  to  every  art  craftsman  in  Europe. 
Their  weapons  of  iron  were  so  perfectly  fashioned 
that  no  industrial  art  from  abroad  could  improve 
upon  their  workmanship.  The  iron  blades  were 
cunningly  ornamented  with  damascened  copper, 
and  the  hilts  artistically  inlaid  with  the  same 
metal.  Moreover,  they  were  most  industrious 
and  capable  husbandmen,  whose  careful  tillage 
of  the  suburbs  made  them  able  competitors  of 
any  gardener  in  Europe.  Their  sexual  and  pa- 
rental relations  evidenced  an  amount  of  tact 
and  delicacy  of  feelings  unsurpassed  among  our- 
selves, either  in  the  simplicity  of  the  country  or 
the  refinements  of  the  town.  Originally  their 
political  and  municipal  system  was  organized 
on  the  lines  of  a representative  republic.  True, 
it  is  on  record  that  these  well-governed  towns 
often  waged  an  internecine  warfare;  but  in 
spite  of  this  it  had  been  their  invariable  custom 
from  time  immemorial,  even  in  times  of  strife, 
to  keep  the  trade  routes  open  and  to  allow  their 
own  and  foreign  merchants  to  go  their  ways 
unharmed.  And  the  commerce  of  these  nations 
ebbed  and  flowed  along  a road  of  unknown  age, 


AFRICAN  CULTURE 


137 


running  from  Itimbiri  to  Batubenge,  about  six 
hundred  miles  in  length.  This  highway  was 
destroyed  by  the  ‘missionaries  of  civilization’ 
from  Arabia  only  toward  the  close  of  the  eight- 
eenth century.  But  even  in  my  own  time  there 
were  still  smiths  who  knew  the  names  of  places 
along  that  wonderful  trade  route  driven  through 
the  heart  of  the  ‘impenetrable  forests  of  the 
Congo.’  For  every  scrap  of  imported  iron  was 
carried  over  it.”  1 

In  disposition  the  Negro  is  among  the  most 
lovable  of  men.  Practically  all  the  great  travelers 
who  have  spent  any  considerable  time  in  Africa 
testify  to  this  and  pay  deep  tribute  to  the  kind- 
ness with  which  they  were  received.  One  has 
but  to  remember  the  classic  story  of  Mungo  Park, 
the  strong  expressions  of  Livingstone,  the  words 
of  Stanley  and  hundreds  of  others  to  realize  this. 

Ceremony  and  courtesy  mark  Negro  life. 
Livingstone  again  and  again  reminds  us  of  “true 
African  dignity.”  “When  Uifian  men  or  women 
salute  each  other,  be  it  with  a plain  and  easy 
curtsey  (which  is  here  the  simplest  form  adopted), 
or  kneeling  down,  or  throwing  oneself  upon  the 
ground,  or  kissing  the  dust  with  one’s  forehead, 
no  matter  which,  there  is  yet  a deliberateness, 
a majesty,  a dignity,  a devoted  earnestness  in 
the  manner  of  its  doing,  which  brings  to  light 
with  every  gesture,  with  every  fold  of  clothing,  the 
deep  significance  and  essential  import  of  every 
single  action.  Everyone  may,  without  too 
1 Frobenius:  Voice  of  Africa.  I,  14-15. 


138 


THE  NEGRO 


greatly  straining  his  attention,  notice  the  very 
striking  precision  and  weight  with  which  the 
upper  and  lower  native  classes  observe  these 
niceties  of  intercourse.”  1 

All  this  does  not  mean  that  the  African  Negro 
is  not  human  with  the  all-too-well-known  foibles 
of  humanity.  Primitive  life  among  them  is,  after 
all,  as  bare  and  cruel  as  among  primitive  Ger- 
mans or  Chinese,  but  it  is  not  more  so,  and  the 
more  we  study  the  Negro  the  more  we  realize 
that  we  are  dealing  with  a normal  human  stock 
which  under  reasonable  conditions  has  developed 
and  will  develop  in  the  same  lines  as  other  men. 
Why  is  it,  then,  that  so  much  of  misinformation 
and  contempt  is  widespread  concerning  Africa 
and  its  people,  not  simply  among  the  unthinking 
mass,  but  among  men  of  education  and  knowledge? 

One  reason  lies  undoubtedly  in  the  connota- 
tion of  the  term  “Negro.”  In  North  America 
a Negro  may  be  seven-eighths  white,  since  the 
term  refers  to  any  person  of  Negro  descent.  If 
we  use  the  term  in  the  same  sense  concerning 
the  inhabitants  of  the  rest  of  the  world,  we  may 
say  truthfully  that  Negroes  have  been  among 
the  leaders  of  civilization  in  every  age  of  the 
world’s  history  from  ancient  Babylon  to  modern 
America;  that  they  have  contributed  wonderful 
gifts  in  art,  industry,  political  organization,  and 
religion,  and  that  they  are  doing  the  same  to-day 
in  all  parts  of  the  world. 

In  sharp  contrast  to  this  usage  the  term  “Negro  ” 
1 Frobenius : Voice  of  Africa,  I,  272. 


AFRICAN  CULTURE 


139 


in  Africa  has  been  more  and  more  restricted  until 
some  scientists,  late  in  the  last  century,  declared 
that  the  great  mass  of  the  black  and  brown  people 
of  Africa  were  not  Negroes  at  all,  and  that  the 
“real”  Negro  dwells  in  a small  space  between  the 
Niger  and  the  Senegal.  Ratzel  says,  “If  we  ask 
what  justifies  so  narrow  a limitation,  we  find  that 
the  hideous  Negro  type,  which  the  fancy  of  ob- 
servers once  saw  all  over  Africa,  but  which,  as 
Livingstone  says,  is  really  to  be  seen  only  as  a 
sign  in  front  of  tobacco  shops,  has  on  closer  in- 
spection evaporated  from  all  parts  of  Africa,  to 
settle  no  one  knows  how  in  just  this  region.  If 
we  understand  that  an  extreme  case  may  have 
been  taken  for  the  genuine  and  pure  form,  even 
so  we  do  not  comprehend  the  ground  of  its  geo- 
graphical limitation  and  location;  for  wherever 
dark,  woolly-haired  men  dwell,  this  ugly  type 
also  crops  up.  We  are  here  in  the  presence  of  a 
refinement  of  science  which  to  an  unprejudiced 
eye  will  hardly  hold  water.”  1 

In  this  restricted  sense  the  Negro  has  no  his- 
tory, culture,  or  ability,  for  the  simple  fact  that 
such  human  beings  as  have  history  and  evidence 
culture  and  ability  are  not  Negroes!  Between 
these  two  extreme  definitions,  with  unconscious 
adroitness,  the  most  extraordinary  and  contra- 
dictory conclusions  have  been  reached. 

Let  it  therefore  be  said,  once  for  all,  that  racial 
inferiority  is  not  the  cause  of  anti-Negro  prejudice. 
Boaz,  the  anthropologist,  says,  “An  unbiased 
1 Ratzel:  History  of  Mankind,  II,  313. 


140 


THE  NEGRO 


estimate  of  the  anthropological  evidence  so  far 
brought  forward  does  not  permit  us  to  coun- 
tenance the  belief  in  a racial  inferiority  which 
would  unfit  an  individual  of  the  Negro  race  to 
take  his  part  in  modern  civilization.  We  do  not 
know  of  any  demand  made  on  the  human  body 
or  mind  in  modern  life  that  anatomical  or  eth- 
nological evidence  would  prove  to  be  beyond  the 
powers  of  the  Negro.”  1 

“We  have  every  reason  to  suppose  that  all 
races  are  capable,  under  proper  guidance,  of  being 
fitted  into  the  complex  scheme  of  our  modern 
civilization,  and'  the  policy  of  artificially  exclud- 
ing them  from  its  benefits  is  as  unjustifiable 
scientifically  as  it  is  ethically  abhorrent.” 2 
What  is,  then,  this  so-called  “instinctive”  mod- 
ern prejudice  against  black  folk? 

Lord  Bryce  says  of  the  intermingling  of  blacks 
and  whites  in  South  America,  “The  ease  with 
which  the  Spaniards  have  intermingled  by  mar- 
riage with  the  Indian  tribes  — and  the  Portuguese 
have  done  the  like,  not  only  with  the  Indians,  but 
with  the  more  physically  dissimilar  Negroes  — 
shows  that  race  repugnance  is  no  such  constant 
and  permanent  factor  in  human  affairs  as  mem- 
bers of  the  Teutonic  peoples  are  apt  to  assume. 
Instead  of  being,  as  we  Teutons  suppose,  the  rule 
in  the  matter,  we  are  rather  the  exception,  for 
in  the  ancient  w'orld  there  seems  to  have  been 
little  race  repulsion.” 

1 Atlanta  University  Publications,  No.  11. 

2 Robert  Lowie  in  the  New  Review,  Sept.,  1914. 


AFRICAN  CULTURE 


141 


In  nearly  every  age  and  land  men  of  Negro 
descent  have  distinguished  themselves.  In 
literature  there  is  Terence  in  Rome,  Nosseyeb 
and  Antar  in  Arabia,  Es-Sa’di  in  the  Sudan,  Push- 
kin in  Russia,  Dumas  in  France,  A1  Kanemi  in 
Spain,  Heredia  in  the  West  Indies,  and  Dunbar 
in  the  United  States,  not  to  mention  the  alleged 
Negro  strain  in  iEsop  and  Robert  Browning.  As 
rulers  and  warriors  we  remember  such  Negroes 
as  Queen  Nefertari  and  Amenhotep  III  among 
many  others  in  Egypt;  Candace  and  Ergamenes 
in  Ethiopia;  Mansa  Musa,  Sonni  Ah,  and  Moham- 
med Askia  in  the  Sudan;  Diaz  in  Brazil,  Tous- 
saint  L’Ouverture  in  Hay ti,  Hannivalov  in  Russia, 
Sakanouye  Tamuramaro  in  Japan,  the  elder 
Dumas  in  France,  Calembe  and  Chaka  among  the 
Bantu,  and  Menelik,  of  Abyssinia;  the  number- 
less black  leaders  of  India,  and  the  mulatto  strain 
of  Alexander  Hamilton.  In  music  and  art  we 
recall  Bridgewater,  the  friend  of  Beethoven, 
and  the  unexplained  complexion  of  Beethoven’s 
own  father;  Coleridge-Taylor  in  England,  Tanner 
in  America,  Gomez  in  Spain;  Ira  Aldridge,  the 
actor,  and  Johnson,  Cook,  and  Burleigh,  who 
are  making  the  new  American  syncopated  music. 
In  the  Church  we  know  that  Negro  blood  coursed 
in  the  veins  of  many  of  the  Catholic  African 
fathers,  if  not  in  certain  of  the  popes;  and  there 
were  in  modern  days  Benoit  of  Palermo,  St. 
Benedict,  Bishop  Crowther,  the  Mahdi  who 
drove  England  from  the  Sudan,  and  Americans 
like  Allen,  Lot  Carey,  and  Alexander  Crummell. 


142 


THE  NEGRO 


In  science,  discovery,  and  invention  the  Negroes 
claim  Lislet  Geoff roy  of  the  French  Academy, 
Latino  and  Amo,  well  known  in  European  uni- 
versity circles;  and  in  America  the  explorers 
Doran tes  and  Henson;  Banneker,  the  almanac 
maker;  Wood,  the  telephone  improver;  McCoy, 
inventor  of  modern  lubrication;  Matseliger,  who 
revolutionized  shoemaking.  Here  are  names 
representing  all  degrees  of  genius  and  talent  from 
the  mediocre  to  the  highest,  but  they  are  strong 
human  testimony  to  the  ability  of  this  race. 

We  must,  then,  look  for  the  origin  of  modern 
color  prejudice  not  to  physical  or  cultural  causes, 
but  to  historic  facts.  And  we  shall  find  the 
answer  in  modern  Negro  slavery  and  the  slave 
trade. 


CHAPTER  IX 


THE  TRADE  IN  MEN 

Color  was  never  a badge  of  slavery  in  the 
ancient  or  medieval  world,  nor  has  it  been  in  the 
modern  world  outside  of  Christian  states.  Homer 
sings  of  a black  man,  a “reverend  herald” 

Of  visage  solemn,  sad,  but  sable  hue. 

Short,  woolly  curls,  o’erfleeced  his  bending  head,  . . . 

Eurybiates,  in  whose  large  soul  alone, 

Ulysses  viewed  an  image  of  his  own. 

Greece  and  Rome  had  their  chief  supplies  of 
slaves  from  Europe  and  Asia.  Egypt  enslaved 
races  of  all  colors,  and  if  there  were  more  blacks 
than  others  among  her  slaves,  there  were  also 
more  blacks  among  her  nobles  and  Pharaohs, 
and  both  facts  are  explained  by  her  racial  origin 
and  geographical  position.  The  fall  of  Rome 
led  to  a cessation  of  the  slave  trade,  but  after  a 
long  interval  came  the  white  slave  trade  of  the 
Saracens  and  Moors,  and  finally  the  modern 
trade  in  Negroes. 

Slavery  as  it  exists  universally  among  primitive 
people  is  a system  whereby  captives  in  war  are 
put  to  tasks  about  the  homes  and  in  the  fields, 
thus  releasing  the  warriors  for  systematic  fight- 
143 


144 


THE  NEGRO 


ing  and  the  women  for  leisure.  Such  slavery  has 
been  common  among  all  peoples  and  was  wide- 
spread in  Africa.  The  relative  number  of  African 
slaves  under  these  conditions  was  small  and  the 
labor  not  hard;  they  were  members  of  the  family 
and  might  and  did  often  rise  to  high  position  in 
the  tribe. 

Remembering  that  in  the  fifteenth  century 
there  was  no  great  disparity  between  the  civiliza- 
tion of  Negroland  and  that  of  Europe,  what 
made  the  striking  difference  in  subsequent 
development?  European  civilization,  cut  off  by 
physical  barriers  from  further  incursions  of  bar- 
baric races,  settled  more  and  more  to  systematic 
industry  and  to  the  domination  of  one  religion; 
African  culture  and  industries  were  threatened 
by  powerful  barbarians  from  the  west  and  central 
regions  of  the  continent  and  by  the  Moors  in 
the  north,  and  Islam  had  only  partially  converted 
the  leading  peoples. 

When,  therefore,  a demand  for  workmen  arose 
in  America,  European  exportation  was  limited 
by  religious  ties  and  economic  stability.  African 
exportation  was  encouraged  not  simply  by  the 
Christian  attitude  toward  heathen,  but  also  by 
the  Moslem  enmity  toward  the  unconverted 
Negroes.  Two  great  modern  religions,  there- 
fore, agreed  at  least  in  the  policy  of  enslaving 
heathen  blacks,  while  the  overthrow  of  black 
Askias  by  the  Moors  at  Tenkadibou  brought 
that  economic  chaos  among  the  advanced  Negro 
peoples  and  movement  among  the  more  barbar- 


THE  TRADE  IN  MEN 


145 


ous  tribes  which  proved  of  prime  advantage  to 
the  development  of  a systematic  trade  in  men. 

The  modern  slave  trade  began  with  the  Mo- 
hammedan conquests  in  Africa,  when  heathen 
Negroes  were  seized  to  supply  the  harems,  and 
as  soldiers  and  servants.  They  were  bought 
from  the  masters  and  seized  in  war,  until  the 
growing  wealth  and  luxury  of  the  conquerors 
demanded  larger  numbers.  Then  Negroes  from 
the  Egyptian  Sudan,  Abyssinia,  and  Zanzibar 
began  to  pass  into  Arabia,  Persia,  and  India  in 
increased  numbers.  As  Negro  kingdoms  and 
tribes  rose  to  power  they  found  the  slave  trade 
lucrative  and  natural,  since  the  raids  in  which 
slaves  were  captured  were  ordinary  inter-tribal 
wars.  It  was  not  until  the  eighteenth  and  nine- 
teenth centuries  that  the  demand  for  slaves  in 
Christian  lands  made  slaves  the  object,  and  not 
the  incident,  of  African  wars. 

In  Mohammedan  countries  there  were  gleams 
of  hope  in  slavery.  In  fiction  and  in  truth  the 
black  slave  had  a chance.  Once  converted  to 
Islam,  he  became  a brother  to  the  best,  and  the 
brotherhood  of  the  faith  was  not  the  sort  of  idle 
lie  that  Christian  slave  masters  made  it.  In 
Arabia  black  leaders  arose  like  Antar;  in  India 
black  slaves  carved  out  principalities  where  their 
descendants  still  rule. 

Some  Negro  slaves  were  brought  to  Europe  by 
the  Spaniards  in  the  fourteenth  century,  and 
a small  trade  was  continued  by  the  Portuguese, 
who  conquered  territory  from  the  “tawny” 


146 


THE  NEGRO 


Moors  of  North  Africa  in  the  early  fifteenth 
century.  Later,  after  their  severe  repulse  at  Al- 
Kasr-Al-Kabu,  the  Portuguese  began  to  creep 
down  the  west  coast  in  quest  of  trade.  They 
reached  the  River  of  Gold  in  1441,  and  their 
story  is  that  their  leader  seized  certain  free 
Moors  and  the  next  year  exchanged  them  for 
ten  black  slaves,  a target  of  hide,  ostrich  eggs, 
and  some  gold  dust.  The  trade  was  easily  justi- 
fied on  the  ground  that  the  Moors  were  Moham- 
medans and  refused  to  be  converted  to  Chris- 
tianity, while  heathen  Negroes  would  be  better 
subjects  for  conversion  and  stronger  laborers. 
In  the  next  few  years  a small  number  of  Negroes 
continued  to  be  imported  into  Spain  and  Portu- 
gal as  servants.  We  find,  for  instance,  in  1474, 
that  Negro  slaves  were  common  in  Seville.  There 
is  a letter  from  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  in  the 
year  1474  to  a celebrated  Negro,  Juan  de  Valla- 
dolid, commonly  called  the  “Negro  Count” 
(El  Conde  Negro),  nominating  him  to  the  office 
of  “mayoral  of  the  Negroes”  in  Seville.  The 
slaves  were  apparently  treated  kindly,  allowed 
to  keep  their  own  dances  and  festivals,  and  to 
have  their  own  chief,  who  represented  them  in  the 
courts,  as  against  their  own  masters,  and  settled 
their  private  quarrels. 

Between  1455  and  1492  little  mention  is  made 
of  slaves  in  the  trade  with  Africa.  Columbus  is 
said  to  have  suggested  Negroes  for  America,  but 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella  refused.  Nevertheless, 
by  1501,  we  have  the  first  incidental  mention  of 


THE  TRADE  IN  MEN 


147 


Negroes  going  to  America  in  a declaration  that 
Negro  slaves  “born  in  the  power  of  Christians 
were  to  be  allowed  to  pass  to  the  Indies,  and  the 
officers  of  the  royal  revenue  were  to  receive  the 
money  to  be  paid  for  their  permits.” 

About  1501  Ovando,  Governor  of  Spanish 
America,  was  objecting  to  Negro  slaves  and 
“solicited  that  no  Negro  slaves  should  be  sent 
to  Hispaniola,  for  they  fled  amongst  the  Indians 
and  taught  them  bad  customs,  and  never  could 
be  captured.”  Nevertheless  a letter  from  the 
king  to  Ovando,  dated  Segovia,  the  fifteenth  of 
September,  1505,  says,  “I  will  send  more  Negro 
slaves  as  you  request;  I think  there  may  be  a 
hundred.  At  each  time  a trustworthy  person 
will  go  with  them  who  may  have  some  share  in 
the  gold  they  may  collect  and  may  promise  them 
ease  if  they  work  well.” 1 There  is  a record  of  a 
hundred  slaves  being  sent  out  this  very  year,  and 
Diego  Columbus  was  notified  of  fifty  to  be  sent 
from  Seville  for  the  mines  in  1510. 

After  this  time  frequent  notices  show  that 
Negroes  were  common  in  the  new  world.2  When 
Pizarro,  for  instance,  had  been  slain  in  Peru, 
his  body  was  dragged  to  the  cathedral  by  two 
Negroes.  After  the  battle  of  Anaquito  the  head 
of  the  viceroy  was  cut  off  by  a Negro,  and  during 
the  great  earthquake  in  Guatemala  a most  re- 
markable figure  was  a gigantic  N egro  seen  in  various 
parts  of  the  city.  Nunez  had  thirty  Negroes  with 

1 Cf.  Helps:  Spanish  Conquest,  IV,  401. 

* Helps,  op.  cit.,  I,  210-220. 


148 


THE  NEGRO 


him  on  the  top  of  the  Sierras,  and  there  was 
rumor  of  an  aboriginal  tribe  of  Negroes  in  South 
America.  One  of  the  last  acts  of  King  Ferdinand 
was  to  urge  that  no  more  Negroes  be  sent  to  the 
West  Indies,  but  under  Charles  V,  Bishop  Las 
Casas  drew  up  a plan  of  assisted  migration  to 
America  and  asked  in  1517  the  right  for  immi- 
grants to  import  twelve  Negro  slaves,  in  return 
for  which  the  Indians  were  to  be  freed. 

Las  Casas,  writing  in  his  old  age,  owns  his 
error:  “This  advice  that  license  should  be  given 
to  bring  Negro  slaves  to  these  lands,  the  Clerigo 
Casas  first  gave,  not  considering  the  injustice 
with  which  the  Portuguese  take  them  and  make 
them  slaves;  which  advice,  after  he  had  appre- 
hended the  nature  of  the  thing,  he  would  not  have 
given  for  all  he  had  in  the  world.  For  he  always 
held  that  they  had  been  made  slaves  unjustly 
and  tyrannically;  for  the  same  reason  holds  good 
of  them  as  of  the  Indians.”  1 

As  soon  as  the  plan  was  broached  a Savoyard, 
Lorens  de  Gomenot,  Governor  of  Bresa,  obtained 
a monopoly  of  this  proposed  trade  and  shrewdly 
sold  it  to  the  Genoese  for  twenty-five  thousand 
ducats.  Other  monopolies  were  granted  in  1523, 
1527,  and  1528. 2 Thus  the  American  trade  be- 
came established  and  gradually  grew,  passing  suc- 
cessively into  the  hands  of  the  Portuguese,  the 
Dutch,  the  French,  and  the  English. 

At  first  the  trade  was  of  the  same  kind  and 

1 Helps,  op.  cit.,  II,  18-19. 

* Helps,  op.  cit..  Ill,  211-212. 


THE  TRADE  IN  MEN 


149 


volume  as  that  already  passing  northward  over 
the  desert  routes.  Soon,  however,  the  American 
trade  developed.  A strong,  unchecked  demand 
for  brute  labor  in  the  West  Indies  and  on  the  con- 
tinent of  America  grew  until  it  culminated  in 
the  eighteenth  century,  when  Negro  slaves  were 
crossing  the  Atlantic  at  the  rate  of  fifty  to  one 
hundred  thousand  a year.  This  called  for  slave 
raiding  on  a scale  that  drew  upon  every  part  of 
Africa  — upon  the  west  coast,  the  western  and 
Egyptian  Sudan,  the  valley  of  the  Congo,  Abys- 
sinia, the  lake  regions,  the  east  coast,  and  Mada- 
gascar. Not  simply  the  degraded  and  weaker 
types  of  Negroes  were  seized,  but  the  strong 
Bantu,  the  Mandingo  and  Songhay,  the  Nubian 
and  Nile  Negroes,  the  Fula,  and  even  the  Asiatic 
Malay,  were  represented  in  the  raids. 

There  was  thus  begun  in  modern  days  a new 
slavery  and  slave  trade.  It  was  different  from 
that  of  the  past,  because  more  and  more  it  came 
in  time  to  be  founded  on  racial  caste,  and  this 
caste  was  made  the  foundation  of  a new  industrial 
system.  For  four  hundred  years,  from  1450  to 
1850,  European  civilization  carried  on  a system- 
atic trade  in  human  beings  of  such  tremendous 
proportions  that  the  physical,  economic,  and 
moral  effects  are  still  plainly  to  be  remarked 
throughout  the  world.  To  this  must  be  added  the 
large  slave  trade  of  Mussulman  lands,  which 
began  with  the  seventh  century  and  raged  almost 
unchecked  until  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. 


150 


THE  NEGRO 


These  were  not  days  of  decadence,  but  a period 
that  gave  the  world  Shakespeare,  Martin  Luther, 
and  Raphael,  Haroun-al-Raschid  and  Abraham 
Lincoln.  It  was  the  day  of  the  greatest  expansion 
of  two  of  the  world’s  most  pretentious  religions 
and  of  the  beginnings  of  the  modern  organization 
of  industry.  In  the  midst  of  this  advance  and 
uplift  this  slave  trade  and  slavery  spread  more 
human  misery,  inculcated  more  disrespect  for 
and  neglect  of  humanity,  a greater  callousness  to 
suffering,  and  more  petty,  cruel,  human  hatred 
than  can  well  be  calculated.  We  may  excuse  and 
palliate  it,  and  write  history  so  as  to  let  men 
forget  it;  it  remains  the  most  inexcusable  and 
despicable  blot  on  modern  human  history. 

The  Portuguese  built  the  first  slave-trading 
fort  at  Elmina,  on  the  Gold  Coast,  in  1482,  and 
extended  their  trade  down  the  west  coast  and 
up  the  east  coast.  Under  them  the  abominable 
traffic  grew  larger  and  larger,  until  it  became  far 
the  most  important  in  money  value  of  all  the 
commerce  of  the  Zambesi  basin.  There  could  be 
no  extension  of  agriculture,  no  mining,  no  prog- 
ress of  any  kind  where  it  was  so  extensively  car- 
ried on.1 

It  was  the  Dutch,  however,  who  launched  the 
oversea  slave  trade  as  a regular  institution. 
They  began  their  fight  for  freedom  from  Spain 
in  1579;  in  1595,  as  a war  measure  against  Spain, 
who  at  that  time  was  dominating  Portugal,  they 

1 Theal:  History  and  Ethnography  of  South  Africa  before 
1795,  I,  476. 


THE  TRADE  IN  MEN 


151 


made  their  first  voyage  to  Guinea.  By  1621  they 
had  captured  Portugal’s  various  slave  forts  on 
the  west  coast  and  they  proceeded  to  open  sixteen 
forts  along  the  coast  of  the  Gulf  of  Guinea. 
Ships  sailed  from  Holland  to  Africa,  got  slaves 
in  exchange  for  their  goods,  carried  the  slaves  to 
the  West  Indies  or  Brazil,  and  returned  home 
laden  with  sugar.  In  1621  the  private  compa- 
nies trading  in  the  west  were  all  merged  into  the 
Dutch  West  India  Company,  which  sent  in  four 
years  fifteen  thousand  four  hundred  and  thirty 
Negroes  to  Brazil,  carried  on  war  with  Spain, 
supplied  even  the  English  plantations,  and  grad- 
ually became  the  great  slave  carrier  of  the 
day. 

The  commercial  supremacy  of  the  Dutch 
early  excited  the  envy  and  emulation  of  the 
English.  The  Navigation  Ordinance  of  1651  was 
aimed  at  them,  and  two  wars  were  necessary  to 
wrest  the  slave  trade  from  them  and  place  it  in 
the  hands  of  the  English.  The  final  terms  of 
peace,  among  other  things,  surrendered  New 
Netherlands  to  England  and  opened  the  way  for 
England  to  become  henceforth  the  world’s  greatest 
slave  trader. 

The  English  trade  began  with  Sir  John  Haw- 
kins’ voyages  in  1562  and  later,  in  which  “the 
Jesus,  our  chiefe  shippe”  played  a leading  part. 
Desultory  trade  was  kept  up  by  the  English 
until  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
when  English  chartered  slave-trading  companies 
began  to  appear.  In  1662  the  “Royal  Adven- 


152 


THE  NEGRO 


turers,”  including  the  king,  the  queen  dowager, 
and  the  Duke  of  York,  invested  in  the  trade, 
and  finally  the  Royal  African  Company,  which 
became  the  world’s  chief  slave  trader,  was 
formed  in  1672  and  carried  on  a growing  trade  for 
a quarter  of  a century.  Jamaica  had  finally 
been  captured  and  held  by  Oliver  Cromwell  in 
1655  and  formed  a West  Indian  base  for  the  trade 
in  men. 

The  chief  contract  for  trade  in  Negroes  was 
the  celebrated  “Asiento”  or  agreement  of  the 
King  of  Spain  to  the  importation  of  slaves  into 
Spanish  domains.  The  Pope’s  Bull  or  Demark- 
ation,  1493,  debarred  Spain  from  African  posses- 
sions, and  compelled  her  to  contract  with  other 
nations  for  slaves.  This  contract  was  in  the 
hands  of  the  Portuguese  in  1600;  in  1640  the 
Dutch  received  it,  and  in  1701  the  French.  The 
War  of  the  Spanish  Succession  brought  this  mo- 
nopoly to  England. 

This  Asiento  of  1713  was  an  agreement  be- 
tween England  and  Spain  by  which  the  latter 
granted  the  former  a monopoly  of  the  Spanish 
colonial  slave  trade  for  thirty  years,  and  England 
engaged  to  supply  the  colonies  within  that  time 
with  at  least  one  hundred  and  forty-four  thou- 
sand slaves  at  the  rate  of  forty-eight  hundred  per 
year.  The  English  counted  this  prize  as  the 
greatest  result  of  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht  (1713), 
which  ended  the  mighty  struggle  against  the 
power  of  Louis  XIV.  The  English  held  the 
monopoly  until  the  Treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle 


THE  TRADE  IN  MEN 


153 


(1748),  although,  they  had  to  go  to  war  over  it  in 
1739. 

From  this  agreement  the  slave  traders  reaped 
a harvest.  The  trade  centered  at  Liverpool,  and 
that  city’s  commercial  greatness  was  built  largely 
on  this  foundation.  In  1709  it  sent  out  one  slaver 
of  thirty  tons’  burden;  encouraged  by  Parlia- 
mentary subsidies  which  amounted  to  nearly  half 
a million  dollars  between  1729  and  1750,  the 
trade  amounted  to  fifty-three  ships  in  1751; 
eighty-six  in  1765,  and  at  the  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth  century  one  hundred  and  eighty- 
five,  which  carried  forty-nine  thousand  two  hun- 
dred and  thirteen  slaves  in  one  year. 

The  slave  trade  thus  begun  by  the  Portuguese, 
enlarged  by  the  Dutch,  and  carried  to  its  cul- 
mination by  the  English  centered  on  the  west 
coast  near  the  seat  of  perhaps  the  oldest  and 
most  interesting  culture  of  Africa.  It  came  at  a 
critical  time.  The  culture  of  Yoruba,  Benin, 
Mossiland,  and  Nupe  had  exhausted  itself  in  a 
desperate  attempt  to  stem  the  on-coming  flood 
of  Mohammedan  culture.  It  had  succeeded  in 
maintaining  its  small,  loosely  federated  city- 
states  suited  to  trade,  industry,  and  art.  It  had 
developed  strong  resistance  toward  the  Sudan 
state  builders  toward  the  north,  as  in  the  case 
l of  the  fighting  Mossi;  but  behind  this  warlike 
resistance  lay  the  peaceful  city  life  which  gave 
industrial  ideas  to  Byzantium  and  shared  some- 
thing of  Ethiopian  and  Mediterranean  culture. 

The  first  advent  of  the  slave  traders  increased 


154 


THE  NEGRO 


and  encouraged  native  industry,  as  is  evidenced 
by  the  bronze  work  of  Benin;  but  soon  this  was 
pushed  into  the  background,  for  it  was  not  bronze 
metal  but  bronze  flesh  that  Europe  wanted.  A 
new  tyranny,  bloodthirsty,  cruel,  and  built  on 
war,  forced  itself  forward  in  the  Niger  delta. 
The  powerful  state  of  Dahomey  arose  early  in 
the  eighteenth  century  and  became  a devastating 
tyranny,  reaching  its  highest  power  early  in  the 
nineteenth  century.  Ashanti,  a similar  kingdom, 
began  its  conquests  in  1719  and  grew  with  the 
slave  trade.  Thus  state  building  in  West  Africa 
began  to  replace  the  city  economy,  but  it  was  a 
state  built  on  war  and  on  war  supported  and  en- 
couraged largely  for  the  sake  of  trade  in  human 
flesh.  The  native  industries  were  changed  and 
disorganized.  Family  ties  and  government  were 
weakened.  Far  into  the  heart  of  Africa  this 
devilish  disintegration,  coupled  with  Christian 
rum  and  Mohammedan  raiding,  penetrated. 
The  face  of  Africa  was  turned  south  on  these 
slave  traders  instead  of  northward  toward  the 
Mediterranean,  where  for  two  thousand  years 
and  more  Europe  and  Africa  had  met  in  legiti- 
mate trade  and  mutual  respect.  The  full  sig- 
nificance of  the  battle  of  Tenkadibou,  which 
overthrew  the  Askias,  was  now  clear.  Hereafter 
Africa  for  centuries  was  to  appear  before  the 
world,  not  as  the  land  of  gold  and  ivory,  of 
Mansa  Musa  and  Meroe,  but  as  a bound  and  cap- 
tive slave,  dumb  and  degraded. 

The  natural  desire  to  avoid  a painful  subject 


THE  TRADE  IN  MEN 


155 


has  led  historians  to  gloss  over  the  details  of 
the  slave  trade  and  leave  the  impression  that  it 
was  a local  west-coast  phenomenon  and  confined 
to  a few  years.  It  was,  on  the  contrary,  continent 
wide  and  centuries  long  and  an  economic,  social, 
and  political  catastrophe  probably  unparalleled 
in  human  history. 

The  exact  proportions  of  the  slave  trade  can 
be  estimated  only  approximately.  From  1680 
to  1688  we  know  that  the  English  African  Com- 
pany alone  sent  249  ships  to  Africa,  shipped 
there  60,783  Negro  slaves,  and  after  losing  14,387 
on  the  middle  passage,  delivered  46,396  in  Amer- 
ica. 

It  seems  probable  that  25,000  Negroes  a year 
arrived  in  America  between  1698  and  1707. 
After  the  Asiento  of  1713  this  number  rose  to 

30.000  annually,  and  before  the  Revolutionary 
War  it  had  reached  at  least  40,000  and  perhaps 

100.000  slaves  a year. 

The  total  number  of  slaves  imported  is  not 
known.  Dunbar  estimates  that  nearly  900,000 
came  to  America  in  the  sixteenth  century, 

2.750.000  in  the  seventeenth,  7,000,000  in  the 
eighteenth,  and  over  4,000,000  in  the  nineteenth, 
perhaps  15,000,000  in  all.  Certainly  it  seems 
that  at  least  10,000,000  Negroes  were  expatriated. 
Probably  every  slave  imported  represented  on 
the  average  five  corpses  in  Africa  or  on  the  high 
seas.  The  American  slave  trade,  therefore, 
meant  the  elimination  of  at  least  60,000,000 
Negroes  from  their  fatherland.  The  Mohamme- 


156 


THE  NEGRO 


dan  slave  trade  meant  the  expatriation  or  forci- 
ble migration  in  Africa  of  nearly  as  many  more. 
It  would  be  conservative,  then,  to  say  that  the 
slave  trade  cost  Negro  Africa  100,000,000  souls. 
And  yet  people  ask  to-day  the  cause  of  the  stag- 
nation of  culture  in  that  land  since  1600! 

Such  a large  number  of  slaves  could  be  sup- 
plied only  by  organized  slave  raiding  in  every 
corner  of  Africa.  The  African  continent  gradually 
became  revolutionized.  Whole  regions  were  de- 
populated, whole  tribes  disappeared;  villages  were 
built  in  caves  and  on  hills  or  in  forest  fastnesses; 
the  character  of  peoples  like  those  of  Benin 
developed  their  worst  excesses  of  cruelty  instead 
of  the  already  flourishing  arts  of  peace.  The  dark, 
irresistible  grasp  of  fetish  took  firmer  hold  on 
men’s  minds. 

Further  advances  toward  civilization  became 
impossible.  Not  only  was  there  the  immense 
demand  for  slaves  which  had  its  outlet  on  the 
west  coast,  but  the  slave  caravans  were  stream- 
ing up  through  the  desert  to  the  Mediterranean 
coast  and  down  the  valley  of  the  Nile  to  the  cen- 
ters of  Mohammedanism.  It  was  a rape  of  a 
continent  to  an  extent  never  paralleled  in  an- 
cient or  modern  times. 

In  the  American  trade  there  was  not  only  the 
horrors  of  the  slave  raid,  which  lined  the  winding 
paths  of  the  African  jungles  with  bleached  bones, 
but  there  was  also  the  horrors  of  what  was  called 
the  “middle  passage,”  that  is,  the  voyage  across 
the  Atlantic.  As  Sir  William  Dolben  said. 


THE  TRADE  IN  MEN 


157 


“The  Negroes  were  chained  to  each  other  hand 
and  foot,  and  stowed  so  close  that  they  were  not 
allowed  above  a foot  and  a half  for  each  in 
breadth.  Thus  crammed  together  like  herrings 
in  a barrel,  they  contracted  putrid  and  fatal  dis- 
orders; so  that  they  who  came  to  inspect  them 
in  a morning  had  occasionally  to  pick  dead  slaves 
out  of  their  rows,  and  to  unchain  their  carcases 
from  the  bodies  of  their  wretched  fellow-sufferers 
to  whom  they  had  been  fastened.”  1 

It  was  estimated  that  out  of  every  one  hundred 
lot  shipped  from  Africa  only  about  fifty  lived  to 
be  effective  laborers  across  the  sea,  and  among 
the  whites  more  seamen  died  in  that  trade  in 
one  year  than  in  the  whole  remaining  trade  of 
England  in  two.  The  full  realization  of  the 
horrors  of  the  slave  trade  was  slow  in  reaching 
the  ears  and  conscience  of  the  modern  world, 
just  as  to-day  the  treatment  of  dark  natives  in 
European  colonies  is  brought  to  publicity  with 
the  greatest  difficulty.  The  first  move  against 
the  slave  trade  in  England  came  in  Parliament  in 
1776,  but  it  was  not  until  thirty-one  years  later, 
in  1807,  that  the  trade  was  banned  through  the 
arduous  labors  of  Clarkson,  Wilberforce,  Sharpe, 
and  others. 

Denmark  had  already  abolished  the  trade,  and 
the  United  States  attempted  to  do  so  the  fol- 
lowing year.  Portugal  and  Spain  were  induced 
to  abolish  the  trade  between  1815  and  1830. 
Notwithstanding  these  laws,  the  contraband 
1 Ingram : History  of  Slavery,  p.  152. 


158 


THE  NEGRO 


trade  went  on  until  the  beginning  of  the  Civil 
War  in  America.  The  reasons  for  this  were  the 
enormous  profit  of  the  trade  and  the  continued 
demand  of  the  American  slave  barons,  who  had 
no  sympathy  with  the  efforts  to  stop  their  source 
of  cheap  labor  supply. 

However,  philanthropy  was  not  working 
alone  to  overthrow  Negro  slavery  and  the  slave 
trade.  It  was  seen,  first  in  England  and  later  in 
other  countries,  that  slavery  as  an  industrial 
system  could  not  be  made  to  work  satisfactorily 
in  modern  times.  Its  cost  was  too  great,  and  one 
of  the  causes  of  this  cost  was  the  slave  insur- 
rections from  the  very  beginning,  when  the  slaves 
rose  on  the  plantation  of  Diego  Columbus  down 
to  the  Civil  War  in  America.  Actual  and  po- 
tential slave  insurrection  in  the  West  Indies,  in 
North  and  South  America,  kept  the  slave  owners 
in  apprehension  and  turmoil,  or  called  for  a 
police  system  difficult  to  maintain.  In  North 
America  revolt  finally  took  the  form  of  organized 
running  away  to  the  North,  and  this,  with  the 
growing  scarcity  of  suitable  land  and  the  moral 
revolt,  led  to  the  Civil  War  and  the  disap- 
pearance of  the  American  slave  trade. 

There  was  still,  however,  the  Mohammedan 
slave  trade  to  deal  with,  and  this  has  been  the 
work  of  the  nineteenth  and  early  twentieth 
centuries.  In  the  last  quarter  of  the  nineteenth 
century  ten  thousand  slaves  annually  were  being 
distributed  on  the  southern  and  eastern  coast  of 
the  Mediterranean  and  at  the  great  slave  market 
in  Bornu. 


THE  TRADE  IN  MEN 


159 


On  the  east  coast  of  Africa  in  1862  nineteen 
thousand  slaves  were  passed  into  Zanzibar  and 
thence  into  Arabia  and  Persia.  As  late  as  1880, 
three  thousand  annually  were  being  thus  trans- 
planted, but  now  the  trade  is  about  stopped. 
To-day  the  only  centers  of  actual  slave  trading 
may  be  said  to  be  the  cocoa  plantations  of  the 
Portuguese  Islands  on  the  west  coast  of  Africa, 
and  the  Congo  Free  State. 

Such  is  the  story  of  the  Rape  of  Ethiopia  — 
a sordid,  pitiful,  cruel  tale.  Raphael  painted, 
Luther  preached,  Corneille  wrote,  and  Milton 
sung;  and  through  it  all,  for  four  hundred  years, 
the  dark  captives  wound  to  the  sea  amid  the 
bleaching  bones  of  the  dead;  for  four  hundred 
years  the  sharks  followed  the  scurrying  ships; 
for  four  hundred  years  America  was  strewn  with 
the  living  and  dying  millions  of  a transplanted 
race;  for  four  hundred  years  Ethiopia  stretched 
forth  her  hands  unto  God. 


CHAPTER  X 


THE  WEST  INDIES  AND  LATIN  AMERICA 

That  was  a wonderful  century,  the  fifteenth, 
when  men  realized  that  beyond  the  scowling 
waste  of  western  waters  were  dreams  come  true. 
Curious  and  yet  crassly  human  it  is  that,  with 
all  this  poetry  and  romance,  arose  at  once  the 
filthiest  institution  of  the  modern  world  and  the 
costliest.  For  on  Negro  slavery  in  America  was 
built,  not  simply  the  abortive  cotton  kingdom, 
but  the  foundations  of  that  modern  imperialism 
which  is  based  on  the  despising  of  backward  men. 

According  to  some  accounts  Alonzo,  “the 
Negro,”  piloted  one  of  the  ships  of  Columbus, 
and  certainly  there  was  Negro  blood  among  his 
sailors.  As  early  as  1528  there  were  nearly 
ten  thousand  Negroes  in  the  new  world.  We 
hear  of  them  in  all  parts.  In  Honduras,  for  in- 
stance, a Negro  is  sent  to  burn  a native  village; 
in  1555  the  town  council  of  Santiago  de  Chile 
voted  to  allow  an  enfranchised  Negro  possession 
of  land  in  the  town,  and  evidently  treated  him 
just  as  white  applicants  were  treated.  D’Allyon, 
who  explored  the  coast  of  Virginia  in  the  first 
quarter  of  the  sixteenth  century,  used  Negro 
slaves  (who  afterward  revolted)  to  build  his 
160 


WEST  INDIES  AND  LATIN  AMERICA  161 


ships  and  help  in  exploration;  Balboa  had  with 
him  thirty  Negroes,  who,  in  1513,  helped  to 
build  the  first  ships  on  the  Pacific  coast;  Cortez 
had  three  hundred  Negro  porters  in  1522. 

Before  1530  there  were  enough  Negroes  in 
Mexico  to  lead  to  an  insurrection,  where  the 
Negroes  fought  desperately,  but  were  overcome 
and  their  ringleaders  executed.  Later  the  fol- 
lowers of  another  Negro  insurgent,  Bayano, 
wrere  captured  and  sent  back  to  Spain.  Negroes 
founded  the  town  of  Santiago  del  Principe  in 
1570,  and  in  1540  a Negro  slave  of  Hernandez 
de  Alarcon  was  the  only  one  of  the  party  to  carry 
a message  across  the  country  to  the  Zunis  of 
New  Mexico.  A Negro,  Stephen  Dorantes, 
discovered  New  Mexico.  This  Stephen  or 
“ Estevanico  ” was  sent  ahead  by  certain  Spanish 
friars  to  the  “Seven  Cities  of  Cibola.”  “As  soon 
as  Stephen  had  left  said  friars,  he  determined  to 
earn  all  the  reputation  and  honor  for  himself,  and 
that  the  boldness  and  daring  of  having  alone 
discovered  those  villages  of  high  stories  so  much 
spoken  of  throughout  that  country  should  be 
attributed  to  him;  and  carrying  along  with  him 
the  people  who  followed  him,  he  endeavored  to 
cross  the  wilderness  which  is  between  Cibola  and 
the  country  he  had  gone  through,  and  he  was  so 
far  ahead  of  the  friars  that  when  they  arrived 
at  Chichilticalli,  which  is  on  the  edge  of  the  wil- 
derness, he  was  already  at  Cibola,  which  is 
eighty  leagues  of  wilderness  beyond.”  But  the 
Indians  of  the  new  and  strange  country  took 


282 


THE  NEGRO 


alarm  and  concluded  that  Stephen  “must  be  a 
spy  or  guide  for  some  nations  who  intended  to 
come  and  conquer  them,  because  it  seemed  to 
them  unreasonable  for  him  to  say  that  the  people 
were  white  in  the  country  from  which  he  came, 
being  black  himself  and  being  sent  by  them.”  1 

Slaves  imported  under  the  Asiento  treaties 
went  to  all  parts  of  the  Americas.  Spanish  Amer- 
ica had  by  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century 
ten  thousand  in  Santo  Domingo,  eighty-four 
thousand  in  Cuba,  fifty  thousand  in  Porto  Rico, 
sixty  thousand  in  Louisiana  and  Florida,  and 
sixty  thousand  in  Central  and  South  America. 

The  history  of  the  Negro  in  Spanish  America 
centered  in  Cuba,  Venezuela,  and  Central  America. 
In  the  sixteenth  century  slaves  began  to  arrive 
in  Cuba  and  Negroes  joined  many  of  the  explor- 
ing expeditions  from  there  to  various  parts  of 
America.  The  slave  trade  greatly  increased  in 
the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  after 
the  revolution  in  Hayti  large  numbers  of  French 
emigrants  from  that  island  settled  in  Cuba.  This 
and  Spanish  greed  increased  the  harshness  of 
slavery  and  eventually  led  to  revolt  among  the 
Negroes.  In  1844  Governor  O’Donnell  began  a 
cruel  persecution  of  the  blacks  on  account  of  a 
plot  discovered  among  them.  Finally  in  1866  the 
Ten  Years’  War  broke  out  in  which  Negro  and 
white  rebels  joined.  They  demanded  the  abolition 
of  slavery  and  equal  political  rights  for  natives 

1 H.  O.  Flipper’s  translation  of  Castaneda  de  Naf era’s 
narrative. 


WEST  INDIES  AND  LATIN  AMERICA  163 


and  foreigners,  whites  and  blacks.  The  war  was 
cruel  and  bloody  but  ended  in  1878  with  the 
abolition  of  slavery,  while  a further  uprising  the 
following  year  secured  civil  rights  for  Negroes. 
Spanish  economic  oppression  continued,  however, 
and  the  leading  chiefs  of  the  Ten  Years’  War 
including  such  leaders  as  the  mulatto,  Antonio 
Maceo,  with  large  numbers  of  Negro  soldiers, 
took  the  field  again  in  1895.  The  result  was  the 
freeing  of  Cuba  by  the  intervention  of  the  United 
States.  Negro  regiments  from  the  United  States 
played  here  a leading  role.  A number  of  leaders 
in  Cuba  in  political,  industrial,  and  literary  lines 
have  been  men  of  Negro  descent. 

Slavery  was  abolished  by  Guatemala  in  1824 
and  by  Mexico  in  1829.  Argentine,  Peru, 
Bolivia,  Chile,  and  Paraguay  ceased  to  recog- 
nize it  about  1825.  Between  1840  and  1845  it 
came  to  an  end  in  Colombia,  Venezuela,  and 
Ecquador.  Bolivar,  Paez,  Sucre,  and  other 
South  American  leaders  used  Negro  soldiers  in 
fighting  for  freedom  (1814-16),  and  Hayti  twice 
at  critical  times  rendered  assistance  and  received 
Bolivar  twice  as  a refugee. 

Brazil  was  the  center  of  Portuguese  slavery, 
but  slaves  were  not  introduced  in  large  numbers 
until  about  1720,  when  diamonds  were  discovered 
in  the  territory  above  Rio  Janeiro.  Gradually 
the  seaboard  from  Pernambuco  to  Rio  Janeiro 
and  beyond  became  filled  with  Negroes,  and 
although  the  slave  trade  north  of  the  equator 
was  theoretically  abolished  by  Portugal  in  1815 


164 


THE  NEGRO 


and  south  of  the  equator  in  1830,  and  by  Brazil 
in  these  regions  in  1826  and  1830,  nevertheless 
between  1825  and  1850  over  a million  and  a quar- 
ter of  Negroes  were  introduced.  Not  until 
Brazil  abolished  slavery  in  1888  did  the  importa- 
tion wholly  cease.  Brazilian  slavery  allowed 
the  slave  to  purchase  his  freedom,  and  the  color 
line  was  not  strict.  Even  in  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury there  were  black  clergy  and  bishops; 
indeed  the  Negro  clergy  seem  to  have  been  on  a 
higher  moral  level  than  the  whites. 

Insurrection  was  often  attempted,  especially 
among  the  Mohammedan  Negroes  around  Bahia. 
In  1695  a tribe  of  revolted  slaves  held  out  for  a 
long  time.  In  1719  a widespread  conspiracy 
failed,  but  many  of  the  leaders  fled  to  the  forest. 
In  1828  a thousand  rose  in  revolt  at  Bahia,  and 
again  in  1830.  From  1831  to  1837  revolt  was  in 
the  air,  and  in  1835  came  the  great  revolt  of  the 
Mohammedans,  who  attempted  to  enthrone  a 
queen.  The  Negroes  fought  with  furious  bravery, 
but  were  finally  defeated. 

By  1872  the  number  of  free  Negroes  had  very 
greatly  increased,  so  that  emancipation  did  not 
come  as  a shock.  While  Mohammedan  Negroes 
still  gave  trouble  and  were  in  some  cases  sent 
back  to  Africa,  yet  on  the  whole  emancipation 
was  peaceful,  and  whites,  Negroes,  and  Indians 
are  to-day  amalgamating  into  a new  race.  “At 
the  present  moment  there  is  scarcely  a lowly  or  a 
highly  placed  federal  or  provincial  official  at  the 
head  of  or  within  any  of  the  great  departments 


WEST  INDIES  AND  LATIN  AMERICA  165 


of  state  that  has  not  more  or  less  Negro  or 
Amer-Indian  blood  in  his  veins.”  1 

Lord  Bryce  says,  “It  is  hardly  too  much  to 
say  that  along  the  coast  from  Rio  to  Bahia  and 
Pernambuco,  as  well  as  in  parts  of  the  interior 
behind  these  two  cities,  the  black  population 
predominates.  . . . The  Brazilian  lower  class  inter- 
marries freely  with  the  black  people;  the  Brazil- 
ian middle  class  intermarries  with  mulattoes 
and  Quadroons.  Brazil  is  the  one  country  in 
the  world,  besides  the  Portuguese  colonies  on 
the  east  and  west  coasts  of  Africa,  in  which  a 
fusion  of  the  European  and  African  races  is 
proceeding  unchecked  by  law  or  custom.  The 
doctrines  of  human  equality  and  human  solidar- 
ity have  here  their  perfect  work.  The  result  is 
so  far  satisfactory  that  there  is  little  or  no  class 
friction.  The  white  man  does  not  lynch  or 
maltreat  the  Negro;  indeed  I have  never 
heard  of  a lynching  anywhere  in  South  America 
except  occasionally  as  part  of  a political  con- 
vulsion. The  Negro  is  not  accused  of  insolence 
and  does  not  seem  to  develop  any  more  crimi- 
nality than  naturally  belongs  to  any  ignorant 
population  with  loose  notions  of  morality  and 
property. 

“What  ultimate  effect  the  intermixture  of 
blood  will  have  on  the  European  element  in 
Brazil  I will  not  venture  to  predict.  If  one  may 
judge  from  a few  remarkable  cases,  it  will  not 
necessarily  reduce  the  intellectual  standard. 

1 Johnston:  Negro  in  the  New  World,  p.  109. 


166 


THE  NEGRO 


One  of  the  ablest  and  most  refined  Brazilians 
I have  known  had  some  color;  and  other  such 
cases  have  been  mentioned  to  me.  Assumptions 
and  preconceptions  must  be  eschewed,  however 
plausible  they  may  seem.”  1 

A Brazilian  writer  said  at  the  First  Races 
Congress:  “The  cooperation  of  the  metis 2 in 
the  advance  of  Brazil  is  notorious  and  far  from 
inconsiderable.  They  played  the  chief  part 
during  many  years  in  Brazil  in  the  campaign  for 
the  abolition  of  slavery.  I could  quote  cele- 
brated names  of  more  than  one  of  these  metis 
who  put  themselves  at  the  head  of  the  literary 
movement.  They  fought  with  firmness  and 
intrepidity  in  the  press  and  on  the  platform. 
They  faced  with  courage  the  gravest  perils  to 
which  they  were  exposed  in  their  struggle  against 
the  powerful  slave  owners,  who  had  the  protec- 
tion of  a conservative  government.  They  gave 
evidence  of  sentiments  of  patriotism,  self-denial, 
and  appreciation  during  the  long  campaign  in 
Paraguay,  fighting  heroically  at  the  boarding  of 
the  ships  in  the  naval  battle  of  Riachuelo  and 
in  the  attacks  on  the  Brazilian  army,  on  nu- 
merous occasions  in  the  course  of  this  long  South 
American  war.  It  was  owing  to  their  support 
that  the  republic  was  erected  on  the  ruins  of  the 
empire.”  1 

The  Dutch  brought  the  first  slaves  to  the 

1 Bryce:  South  America,  pp.  479-480. 

s I.e.,  mulattoes. 

5 Inter-Racial  Problems,  p.  381. 


WEST  INDIES  AND  LATIN  AMERICA  167 


North  American  continent.  John  Rolfe  relates 
that  the  last  of  August,  1619,  there  came  to  Vir- 
ginia “ a Dutch  man  of  warre  that  sold  us  twenty 
Negars.”  1 This  was  probably  one  of  the  ships 
of  the  numerous  private  Dutch  trading  com- 
panies which  early  entered  into  the  developed 
and  the  lucrative  African  slave  trade.  Although 
the  Dutch  thus  commenced  the  continental 
slave  trade  they  did  not  actually  furnish  a very 
large  number  of  slaves  to  the  English  colonies 
outside  the  West  Indies.  A small  trade  had  by 
1698  brought  a few  thousand  to  New  York  and 
still  fewer  to  New  Jersey. 

The  Dutch  found  better  scope  for  slaves  in 
Guiana,  which  they  settled  in  1616.  Sugar  cane 
became  the  staple  crop,  but  the  Negroes  early 
began  to  revolt  and  the  Dutch  brought  in  East 
Indian  coolies.  The  slaves  were  badly  treated 
and  the  runaways  joined  the  revolted  Bush 
Negroes  in  the  interior.  From  1715  to  1775  there 
was  continuous  fighting  with  the  Bush  Negroes 
or  insurrections,  until  at  last  in  1749  a formal 
treaty  between  sixteen  hundred  Negroes  and  the 
Dutch  was  made.  Immediately  a new  group 
revolted  under  a Mohammedan,  Arabi,  and  they 
obtained  land  and  liberty.  In  1763  the  coast 
Negroes  revolted.  They  were  checked,  but  made 
terms  and  settled  in  the  interior.  The  Bush 
Negroes  fought  against  both  French  and  English 
to  save  Guiana  to  the  Dutch,  but  Guiana  was 
eventually  divided  between  the  three.  The 

1 Smith:  General  History  of  Virginia. 


168 


THE  NEGRO 


Bush  Negroes  still  maintain  their  independence 
and  vigor. 

The  French  encouraged  settlements  in  the 
West  Indies  in  the  seventeenth  century,  but  at 
last,  finding  that  French  immigrants  would  not 
come,  they  began  about  1642  to  import  Negroes. 
Owing  to  wars  with  England,  slaves  were  supplied 
by  the  Dutch  and  Portuguese,  although  the 
Royal  Senegal  Company  held  the  coveted  Asiento 
from  1701  to  1713. 

It  was  in  the  island  of  Hayti,  however,  that 
French  slavery  centered.  Pirates  from  many 
nations,  but  chiefly  French,  began  to  frequent 
the  island,  and  in  1663  the  French  annexed  the 
eastern  part,  thus  dividing  the  island  between 
France  and  Spain.  By  1680  there  were  so  many 
slaves  and  mulattoes  that  Louis  XIV  issued  his 
celebrated  Code  Noir,  which  was  notable  in 
compelling  bachelor  masters,  fathers  of  slave 
children,  to  marry  their  concubines.  Children 
followed  the  condition  of  the  mother  as  to  slavery 
or  freedom;  they  could  have  no  property; 
harsh  punishments  were  provided  for,  but 
families  could  not  be  separated  by  sale  except 
in  the  case  of  grown  children;  emancipation 
with  full  civil  rights  was  made  possible  for  any 
slave  twenty  years  of  age  or  more.  When 
Louisiana  was  settled  and  the  Alabama  coast, 
slaves  were  introduced  there.  Louisiana  was 
transferred  to  Spain  in  1762,  against  the  resis- 
tance of  both  settlers  and  slaves,  but  Spain  took 
possession  in  1769  and  introduced  more  Negroes. 


WEST  INDIES  AND  LATIN  AMERICA  169 


Later,  in  Hayti,  a more  liberal  policy  encour- 
aged trade;  war  was  over  and  capital  and  slaves 
poured  in.  Sugar,  coffee,  chocolate,  indigo,  dyes, 
and  spices  were  raised.  There  were  large  num- 
bers of  mulattoes,  many  of  whom  were  educated 
in  Erance,  and  many  masters  married  Negro 
women  who  had  inherited  large  properties,  just 
as  in  the  United  States  to-day  white  men  are 
marrying  eagerly  the  landed  Indian  women  in 
the  West.  When  white  immigration  increased 
in  1749,  however,  prejudice  arose  against  these 
mulattoes  and  severe  laws  were  passed  depriving 
them  of  civil  rights,  entrance  into  the  professions, 
and  the  right  to  hold  office;  severe  edicts  were 
enforced  as  to  clothing,  names,  and  social  in- 
tercourse. Finally,  after  1777,  mulattoes  were 
forbidden  to  come  to  France. 

When  the  French  Revolution  broke  out,  the 
Haytians  managed  to  send  two  delegates  to 
Paris.  Nevertheless  the  planters  maintained 
the  upper  hand,  and  one  of  the  colored  delegates, 
Oge,  on  returning,  started  a small  rebellion.  He 
and  his  companions  were  killed  with  great  bru- 
tality. This  led  the  French  government  to  grant 
full  civil  rights  to  free  Negroes.  Immediately 
planters  and  free  Negroes  flew  to  arms  against 
each  other  and  then,  suddenly,  August  22,  1791, 
the  black  slaves,  of  whom  there  were  four  hundred 
and  fifty-two  thousand,  arose  in  revolt  to  help 
the  free  Negroes. 

For  many  years  runaway  slaves  had  hidden  in 
the  mountains  under  their  own  chiefs.  One  of 


170 


THE  NEGRO 


the  earliest  of  these  chiefs  was  Poly  dor,  in  1724, 
who  was  succeeded  by  Macandal.  The  great 
chief  of  these  runaways  or  “Maroons”  at  the 
time  of  the  slave  revolt  was  Jean  Frangois,  who 
was  soon  succeeded  by  Biassou. 

Pierre  Dominic  Toussaint,  known  as  Tous- 
saint  L’Ouverture,  joined  these  Maroon  bands, 
where  he  was  called  “the  doctor  of  the  armies  of 
the  king,”  and  soon  became  chief  aid  to  Jean 
Frangois  and  Biassou.  Upon  their  deaths  Tous- 
saint rose  to  the  chief  command.  He  acquired 
complete  control  over  the  blacks,  not  only  in 
military  matters,  but  in  politics  and  social  or- 
ganization; “the  soldiers  regarded  him  as  a 
superior  being,  and  the  farmers  prostrated  them- 
selves before  him.  All  his  generals  trembled 
before  him  (Dessalines  did  not  dare  to  look  in  his 
face),  and  all  the  world  trembled  before  his 
generals.”  1 

The  revolt  once  started,  blacks  and  mulattoes 
murdered  whites  without  mercy  and  the  whites 
retaliated.  Commissioners  were  sent  from 
France,  who  asked  simply  civil  rights  for  freed- 
men,  and  not  emancipation.  Indeed  that  was 
all  that  Toussaint  himself  had  as  yet  demanded. 
The  planters  intrigued  with  the  British  and  this, 
together  with  the  beheading  of  the  king  (an 
impious  act  in  the  eyes  of  Negroes),  induced 
Toussaint  to  join  the  Spaniards.  In  1793  British 
troops  were  landed  and  the  French  commissioners 


1 La  Croix:  Mimoires  sur  la  Revolution,  I,  253,  408. 


WEST  INDIES  AND  LATIN  AMERICA  171 


in  desperation  declared  the  slaves  emancipated. 
This  at  once  won  back  Toussaint  from  the 
Spaniards.  He  became  supreme  in  the  north, 
while  Rigaud,  leader  of  the  mulattoes,  held  the 
south  and  the  west.  By  1798  the  British,  having 
lost  most  of  their  forces  by  yellow  fever,  sur- 
rendered Mole  St.  Nicholas  to  Toussaint  and 
departed.  Rigaud  finally  left  for  France,  and 
Toussaint  in  1800  was  master  of  Hayti.  He  pro- 
mulgated a constitution  under  which  Hayti  was 
to  be  a self-governing  colony;  all  men  were  equal 
before  the  law,  and  trade  was  practically  free. 
Toussaint  was  to  be  president  for  life,  with  the 
power  to  name  his  successor. 

Napoleon  Bonaparte,  master  of  France,  had 
at  this  time  dreams  of  a great  American  empire, 
and  replied  to  Toussaint’s  new  government  by 
sending  twenty-five  thousand  men  under  his 
brother-in-law  to  subdue  the  presumptuous 
Negroes,  as  a preliminary  step  to  his  occupation 
and  development  of  the  Mississippi  valley.  Fierce 
fighting  and  yellow  fever  decimated  the  French, 
but  matters  went  hard  with  the  Negroes  too, 
and  Toussaint  'finally  offered  to  yield.  He  was 
courteously  received  with  military  honors  and 
then,  as  soon  as  possible,  treacherously  seized, 
bound,  and  sent  to  France.  He  was  imprisoned 
at  Fort  Joux  and  died,  perhaps  of  poison,  after 
studied  humiliations,  April  7,  1803. 

Thus  perished  the  greatest  of  American  Negroes 
and  one  of  the  great  men  of  all  time,  at  the  age 
of  fifty -six.  A French  planter  said,  “God  in  his 


172 


THE  NEGRO 


terrestrial  globe  did  not  commune  with  a purer 
spirit.”1  Wendell  Phillips  said,  “Some  doubt 
the  courage  of  the  Negro.  Go  to  Hayti  and  stand 
on  those  fifty  thousand  graves  of  the  best  soldiers 
France  ever  had  and  ask  them  what  they  think  of 
the  Negro’s  sword.  I would  call  him  Napoleon, 
but  Napoleon  made  his  way  to  empire  over  broken 
oaths  and  through  a sea  of  blood.  This  man  never 
broke  his  word.  I would  call  him  Cromwell, 
but  Cromwell  was  only  a soldier,  and  the  state 
he  founded  went  down  with  him  into  his  grave. 
I would  call  him  Washington,  but  the  great  Vir- 
ginian held  slaves.  This  man  risked  his  empire 
rather  than  permit  the  slave  trade  in  the  hum- 
blest village  of  his  dominions.  You  think  me  a 
fanatic,  for  you  read  history,  not  with  your  eyes, 
but  with  your  prejudices.  But  fifty  years  hence, 
when  Truth  gets  a hearing,  the  Muse  of  history 
will  put  Phocion  for  the  Greek,  Brutus  for  the 
Roman,  Hampden  for  the  English,  La  Fayette 
for  France,  choose  Washington  as  the  bright, 
consummate  flower  of  our  earlier  civilization, 
then,  dipping  her  pen  in  the  sunlight,  will  write 
in  the  clear  blue,  above  them  all,  the  name  of 
the  soldier,  the  statesman,  the  martyr,  Toussaint 
L’Ouverture.” 

The  treacherous  killing  of  Toussaint  did  not 
conquer  Hayti.  In  1802  and  1803  some  forty 
thousand  French  soldiers  died  of  war  and  fever. 
A new  colored  leader,  Dessalines,  arose  and  all 

1 Marquis  d’Hermonas.  Cf.  Johnston:  Negro  in  the  New 
World,  p.  158. 


WEST  INDIES  AND  LATIN  AMERICA  173 


the  eight  thousand  remaining  French  surrendered 
to  the  blockading  British  fleet. 

The  effect  of  all  this  was  far-reaching.  Napo- 
leon gave  up  his  dream  of  American  empire  and 
sold  Louisiana  for  a song.  “Thus,  all  of  Indian 
Territory,  all  of  Kansas  and  Nebraska  and  Iowa 
and  Wyoming  and  Montana  and  the  Dakotas, 
and  most  of  Colorado  and  Minnesota,  and  all  of 
Washington  and  Oregon  states,  came  to  us  as  the 
indirect  work  of  a despised  Negro.  Praise,  if 
you  will,  the  work  of  a Robert  Livingstone  or  a 
Jefferson,  but  to-day  let  us  not  forget  our  debt 
to  Toussaint  L’Ouverture,  who  was  indirectly 
the  means  of  America’s  expansion  by  the  Louisiana 
Purchase  of  1803.”  1 

With  the  freedom  of  Hayti  in  1801  came  a 
century  of  struggle  to  fit  the  people  for  the 
freedom  they  had  won.  They  were  yet  slaves, 
crushed  by  a cruel  servitude,  without  education 
or  religious  instruction.  The  Haytian  leaders 
united  upon  Dessalines  to  maintain  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  republic.  Dessalines,  like  Tous- 
saint and  his  lieutenant  Christophe,  was  noted  in 
slavery  days  for  his  severity  toward  his  fellows 
and  the  discipline  which  he  insisted  on.  He  had 
other  characteristics  of  African  chieftains. 
“There  were  seasons  when  he  broke  through  his 
natural  sullenness  and  showed  himself  open, 
affable,  and  even  generous.  His  vanity  was 
excessive  and  manifested  itself  in  singular  per- 

1 DeWitt  Talmage,  in  Christian  Herald , November  28, 
1906. 


174 


THE  NEGRO 


versities.”  1 He  was  a man  of  great  personal 
bravery  and  succeeded  in  maintaining  the  in- 
dependence of  Hayti,  which  had  already  cost 
the  Frenchmen  fifty  thousand  lives. 

On  January  1,  1804,  at  the  place  whence 
Toussaint  had  been  treacherously  seized  and 
sent  to  France,  the  independence  of  Hayti  was 
declared  by  the  military  leaders.  Dessalines  was 
made  governor-general  for  life  and  afterward 
proclaimed  himself  emperor.  This  was  not  an 
act  of  grandiloquence  and  mimicry.  “It  is  truer 
to  say  that  in  it  both  Dessalines  and  later  Chris- 
tophe  were  actuated  by  a clear  insight  into  the 
social  history  and  peculiarities  of  their  people. 
There  was  nothing  in  the  constitution  which  did 
not  have  its  companion  in  Africa,  where  the  or- 
ganization of  society  was  despotic,  with  elective- 
hereditary  chiefs,  royal  families,  polygamic  mar- 
riages, councils,  and  regencies.”  2 

The  population  was  divided  into  soldiers  and 
laborers.  The  territory  was  parceled  out  to 
chiefs,  and  the  laborers  were  bound  to  the  soil 
and  worked  under  rigorous  inspection;  part  of 
the  products  were  reserved  for  their  support, 
and  the  rest  went  to  the  chiefs,  the  king,  the 
general  government,  and  the  army.  The  army 
was  under  stern  discipline  and  military  service 
was  compulsory.  Women  did  much  of  the  agri- 
cultural labor.  Under  Toussaint  the  adminis- 

1 Aimes:  African  Institutions  in  America  (reprinted  from 
Journal  of  American  Folk  Lore),  p.  25. 

* Brown:  History  of  San  Domingo,  II,  158-159. 


WEST  INDIES  AND  LATIN  AMERICA  175 


tration  of  this  system  was  committed  to  Dessa- 
lines,  who  carried  it  out  with  rigor;  it  was  after- 
ward followed  by  Christophe.  The  latter  even 
imported  four  thousand  Negroes  from  Africa, 
from  whom  he  formed  a national  guard  for  pa- 
trolling the  land.  These  regulations  brought  back 
for  a time  a large  part  of  the  former  prosperity 
of  the  island. 

The  severity  with  which  Dessalines  enforced 
the  laws  soon  began  to  turn  many  against  him. 
The  educated  mulattoes  especially  objected  to 
submission  to  the  savage  African  mores.  Des- 
salines started  to  suppress  their  revolt,  but  was 
killed  in  ambush  in  October,  1806. 

Great  Britain  now  began  to  intrigue  for  a pro- 
tectorate over  the  island  and  the  Spanish  end  of 
the  island  threatened  attack.  These  difficulties 
were  overcome,  but  at  a cost  of  great  internal 
strain.  After  the  death  of  Dessalines  it  seemed 
that  Hay ti  was  about  to  dissolve  into  a number  of 
petty  subdivisions.  At  one  time  Christophe  was 
ruling  as  king  in  the  north,  Petion  as  president 
at  Port  au  Prince,  Rigaud  in  the  south,  and  a 
semi-brigand,  Goman,  in  the  extreme  southwest. 
Very  soon,  however,  the  rivalry  narrowed  down 
to  Petion  and  Christophe.  Petion  was  a man  of 
considerable  ability  and  did  much,  not  simply  for 
Hayti,  but  for  South  America.  Already  as  early 
as  1779,  before  the  revolution  in  Hayti,  the 
Haytian  Negroes  had  helped  the  United  States. 
The  British  had  captured  Savannah  in  1778. 
The  French  fleet  appeared  on  the  coast  of  Georgia 


176 


THE  NEGRO 


late  that  year  and  was  ordered  to  recruit  men  in 
Hayti.  Eight  hundred  young  freedmen,  blacks 
and  mulattoes,  offered  to  take  part  in  the  expe- 
dition, and  they  fought  valiantly  in  the  siege  and 
covered  themselves  with  glory.  It  was  this  legion 
that  made  the  charge  on  the  British  and  saved 
the  retreating  American  army.  Among  the  men 
who  fought  there  was  Christophe. 

When  Simon  Bolivar,  Commodore  Aury,  and 
many  Venezuelan  families  were  driven  from  their 
country  in  1815,  they  and  their  ships  took  tem- 
porary refuge  in  Hayti.  Notwithstanding  the 
embarrassed  condition  of  the  republic,  Petion 
received  them  and  gave  them  four  thousand  rifles 
with  ammunition,  provisions,  and  last  and  best 
a printing  press.  He  also  settled  some  interna- 
tional quarrels  among  members  of  the  groups, 
and  Bolivar  expressed  himself  afterward  as  being 
“overwhelmed  with  magnanimous  favors.”  1 

Petion  died  in  1818  and  was  succeeded  by 
his  friend  Boyer.  Christophe  committed  suicide 
the  following  year  and  Boyer  became  not  simply 
ruler  of  western  Hayti,  but  also,  by  arrangement 
with  the  eastern  end  of  the  island,  gained  the 
mastery  there,  where  they  were  afraid  of  Spanish 
aggression.  Thus  from  1822  to  1843  Boyer,  a 
man  of  much  ability,  ruled  the  whole  of  the 
island  and  gained  the  recognition  of  Haytian 
independence  from  France  and  other  nations. 

France,  under  Charles  X,  demanded  an  in- 
demnity of  thirty  million  dollars  to  reimburse  the 
1 See  Leger:  Hayti,  Chap.  XI. 


WEST  INDIES  AND  LATIN  AMERICA  177 


planters  for  confiscated  lands  and  property. 
This  Hayti  tried  to  pay,  but  the  annual  install- 
ment was  a tremendous  burden  to  the  impover- 
ished country.  Further  negotiations  were  en- 
tered into.  Finally  in  1838  France  recognized  the 
independence  of  the  republic  and  the  indemnity 
was  reduced  to  twelve  million  dollars.  Even 
this  was  a large  burden  for  Hayti,  and  the  pay- 
ment of  it  for  years  crippled  the  island. 

The  United  States  and  Great  Britain  in  1825- 
26  recognized  the  independence  of  Hayti.  A 
concordat  was  arranged  with  the  Pope  for  govern- 
ing the  church  in  Hayti,  and  finally  in  1860 
the  church  placed  under  the  French  hierarchy. 
Thus  Boyer  did  unusually  well;  but  his  neces- 
sary concessions  to  France  weakened  his  influ- 
ence at  home,  and  finally  an  earthquake,  which 
destroyed  several  towns  in  1842,  raised  the  super- 
stititious  of  the  populace  against  him.  He  re- 
signed in  1843,  leaving  the  treasury  well  filled; 
but  with  his  withdrawal  the  Spanish  portion  of 
the  island  was  lost  to  Hayti. 

The  subsequent  history  of  Hayti  since  1843 
has  been  the  struggle  of  a small  divided  country 
to  maintain  political  independence.  The  rich 
resources  of  the  country  called  for  foreign  capital, 
but  outside  capital  meant  political  influence 
from  abroad,  which  the  little  nation  rightly 
feared.  Within,  the  old  antagonism  between 
the  freedman  and  the  slave  settled  into  a color 
line  between  the  mulatto  and  the  black,  which 
for  a time  meant  the  difference  between  educated 


178 


THE  NEGRO 


liberalism  and  reactionary  ignorance.  This  dif- 
ference has  largely  disappeared,  but  some  ves- 
tiges of  the  color  line  remain.  The  result  has 
been  reaction  and  savagery  under  Soulouque, 
Dominique,  and  Nord  Alexis,  and  decided 
advance  under  presidents  like  Nissage-Saget, 
Solomon,  Legitime,  and  Hyppolite. 

In  political  life  Hayti  is  still  in  the  sixteenth 
century;  but  in  economic  life  she  has  succeeded 
in  placing  on  their  own  little  farms  the  happiest 
and  most  contented  peasantry  in  the  world,  after 
raising  them  from  a veritable  hell  of  slavery.  If 
modern  capitalistic  greed  can  be  restrained  from 
interference  until  the  best  elements  of  Hayti  se- 
cure permanent  political  leadership  the  triumph 
of  the  revolution  will  be  complete. 

In  other  parts  of  the  French-American  domin- 
ion the  slaves  achieved  freedom  also  by  insur- 
rection. In  Guadeloupe  they  helped  the  French 
drive  out  the  British,  and  thus  gained  emancipa- 
tion. In  Martinique  it  took  three  revolts  and  a 
civil  war  to  bring  freedom. 

The  English  slave  empire  in  America  centered 
in  the  Bermudas,  Barbadoes,  Jamaica  and  the 
lesser  islands,  and  in  the  United  States.  Barba- 
does developed  a savage  slave  code,  and  the  result 
was  attempted  slave  insurrections  in  1674,  1692, 
and  1702.  These  were  not  successful,  but  a rising 
in  1816  destroyed  much  property  under  the 
leadership  of  a mulatto,  Washington  Franklin, 
and  the  repeal  of  bad  laws  and  eventual  enfran- 
chisement of  the  colored  people  followed.  One 


WEST  INDIES  AND  LATIN  AMERICA  179 


Barbadian  mulatto,  Sir  Conrad  Reeves,  has  held 
the  position  of  chief  justice  in  the  island  and  was 
knighted.  A Negro  insurrection  in  Dominica 
under  Farcel  greatly  exercised  England  in  1791 
and  1794  and  delayed  slave  trade  abolition;  in 
1844  and  1847  further  uprisings  took  place,  and 
these  continued  from  1853  to  1893. 

The  chief  island  domain  of  English  slavery  was 
Jamaica.  It  was  Oliver  Cromwell  who,  in  his 
zeal  for  God  and  the  slave  trade,  sent  an  expedi- 
tion to  seize  Hayti.  His  fleet,  driven  off  there, 
took  Jamaica  in  1655.  The  English  found  the 
mountains  already  infested  with  runaway  slaves 
known  as  “Maroons,”  and  more  Negroes  joined 
them  when  the  English  arrived.  In  1663  the 
freedom  of  the  Maroons  was  acknowledged,  land 
was  given  them,  and  their  leader,  Juan  de  Bolas, 
was  made  a colonel  in  the  militia.  He  was  killed, 
however,  in  the  following  year,  and  from  1664 
to  1738  the  three  thousand  or  more  black  Maroons 
fought  the  British  Empire  in  guerrilla  warfare. 
Soldiers,  Indians,  and  dogs  were  sent  against 
them,  and  finally  in  1738  Captain  Cudjo  and 
other  chiefs  made  a formal  treaty  of  peace  with 
Governor  Trelawney.  They  were  granted 
twenty-five  hundred  acres  and  their  freedom  was 
recognized. 

The  peace  lasted  until  1795,  when  they  rebelled 
again  and  gave  the  British  a severe  drubbing, 
besides  murdering  planters.  Bloodhounds  again 
were  imported.  The  Maroons  offered  to  sur- 
render on  the  express  condition  that  none  of  their 


180 


THE  NEGRO 


number  should  be  deported  from  the  island,  as 
the  legislature  wished.  General  Walpole  hesitated, 
but  could  get  peace  on  no  other  terms  and  gave 
his  word.  The  Maroons  surrendered  their  arms, 
and  immediately  the  whites  seized  six  hundred 
of  the  ringleaders  and  transported  them  to  the 
snows  of  Nova  Scotia!  The  legislature  then 
voted  a sword  worth  twenty-five  hundred  dollars 
to  General  Walpole,  which  he  indignantly  refused 
to  accept.  Eventually  these  exiled  Maroons  found 
their  way  to  Sierra  Leone,  West  Africa,  in  time  to 
save  that  colony  to  the  British  crown.1 

The  pressing  desire  for  peace  with  the  Maroons 
on  the  part  of  the  white  planters  arose  from  the 
new  sugar  culture  introduced  in  1673.  A greatly 
increased  demand  for  slaves  followed,  and  between 
1700  and  1786  six  hundred  and  ten  thousand 
slaves  were  imported;  nevertheless,  so  severely 
were  they  driven,  that  there  were  only  three 
hundred  thousand  Negroes  in  Jamaica  in  the 
latter  year. 

Despite  the  Moravian  missions  and  other 
efforts  late  in  the  eighteenth  century,  unrest 
among  the  Jamaica  slaves  and  freedmen  grew 
and  was  increased  by  the  anti-slavery  agitation 
in  England  and  the  revolt  in  Hayti.  There  was 
an  insurrection  in  1796;  and  in  1831  again  the 
Negroes  of  northwest  Jamaica,  impatient  because 
of  the  slow  progress  of  the  emancipation,  arose 
in  revolt  and  destroyed  nearly  three  and  a half 
million  dollars’  worth  of  property,  well-nigh  ruin- 
1 Cf.  Chapter  V,  p.  69. 


WEST  INDIES  AND  LATIN  AMERICA  181 


ing  the  planters  there.  The  next  year  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty-five  thousand  slaves  were  set 
free,  for  which  the  planters  were  paid  nearly 
thirty  million  dollars.  There  ensued  a discour- 
aging condition  of  industry.  The  white  officials 
sent  out  in  these  days  were  arbitrary  and  corrupt. 
Little  was  done  for  the  mass  of  the  people  and 
there  was  outrageous  over-taxation.  Neverthe- 
less the  backwardness  of  the  colony  was  attributed 
to  the  Negro.  Governor  Eyre  complained  in 
1865  that  the  young  and  strong  were  good  for 
nothing  and  were  filling  the  jails;  but  a simul- 
taneous report  by  a missionary  told  the  truth 
concerning  the  officials.  This  aroused  the  colored 
people,  and  a mulatto,  George  William  Gordon, 
called  a meeting.  Other  meetings  were  afterward 
held,  and  finally  the  Negro  peasantry  began  a 
riot  in  1861,  in  which  eighteen  people  were  killed, 
only  a few  of  whom  were  white. 

The  result  was  that  Governor  Eyre  tried  and 
executed  by  court-martial  354  persons,  and  in 
addition  to  this  killed  without  trial  85,  a total  of 
439.  One  thousand  Negro  homes  were  burned  to 
the  ground  and  thousands  of  Negroes  flogged  or 
mutilated.  Children  had  their  brains  dashed  out, 
pregnant  women  were  murdered,  and  Gordon 
was  tried  by  court-martial  and  hanged.  In  fact 
the  punishment  was,  as  the  royal  commissioners 
said,  “reckless  and  positively  barbarous.”  1 

This  high-handed  act  aroused  England.  Eyre 
was  not  punished,  but  the  island  was  made  a 
1 Johnston:  Negro  in  the  New  World. 


182 


THE  NEGRO 


crown  colony  in  1866,  and  given  representation 
in  the  legislature  in  1886. 

In  the  island  of  St.  Vincent,  Indians  first  sought 
to  enslave  the  fugitive  Negroes  wrecked  there, 
but  the  Negroes  took  the  Carib  women  and  then 
drove  the  Indian  men  away.  These  “black 
Caribs  ” fought  with  Indians,  English,  and  others 
for  three  quarters  of  a century,  until  the  Indians 
were  exterminated.  The  British  took  possession 
in  1763.  The  black  Caribs  resisted,  and  after 
hard  fighting  signed  a treaty  in  1773,  receiving 
one-third  of  the  island  as  their  property.  They 
afterward  helped  the  French  against  the  British, 
and  were  finally  deported  to  the  island  of  Ruatan, 
off  Honduras.  In  Trinidad  and  British  Guiana 
there  have  been  mutinies  and  rioting  of  slaves  and 
a curious  mingling  of  races. 

Other  parts  of  South  America  must  be  dis- 
missed briefly,  because  of  insufficient  data. 
Colombia  and  Venezuela,  with  perhaps  eight 
million  people,  have  at  least  one-third  of  their 
population  of  Negro  and  Indian  descent.  Here 
Simon  Bolivar  with  his  Negro,  mulatto,  and 
Indian  forces  began  the  war  that  liberated  South 
America.  Central  America  has  a smaller  pro- 
portion of  Negroids,  perhaps  one  hundred 
thousand  in  all.  Bolivia  and  Peru  have  small 
amounts  of  Negro  blood,  while  Argentine  and 
Uruguay  have  very  little.  The  Negro  population 
in  these  lands  is  everywhere  in  process  of  rapid 
amalgamation  with  whites  and  Indians. 


CHAPTER  XI 


THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

There  were  half  a million  slaves  in  the  con- 
fines of  the  United  States  when  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  declared  “that  all  men  are 
created  equal;  that  they  are  endowed  by  their 
Creator  with  certain  unalienable  rights;  that 
among  these  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of 
happiness.”  The  land  that  thus  magniloquently 
heralded  its  advent  into  the  family  of  nations 
had  supported  the  institution  of  human  slavery 
for  one  hundred  and  fifty-seven  years  and  was 
destined  to  cling  to  it  eighty-seven  years  longer. 

The  greatest  experiment  in  Negro  slavery  as  a 
modern  industrial  system  was  made  on  the  main- 
land of  North  America  and  in  the  confines  of  the 
present  United  States.  And  this  experiment  was 
on  such  a scale  and  so  long-continued  that  it  is 
profitable  for  study  and  reflection.  There  were 
in  the  United  States  in  its  dependencies,  in  1910, 
9,828,294  persons  of  acknowledged  Negro  descent, 
not  including  the  considerable  infiltration  of 
Negro  blood  which  is  not  acknowledged  and  often 
not  known.  To-day  the  number  of  persons 
called  Negroes  is  probably  about  ten  and  a 
quarter  millions.  These  persons  are  almost  en- 
183 


184 


THE  NEGRO 


tirely  descendants  of  African  slaves,  brought  to 
America  in  the  sixteenth,  seventeenth,  eighteenth, 
and  nineteenth  centuries. 

The  importation  of  Negroes  to  the  mainland 
of  North  America  was  small  until  the  British  got 
the  coveted  privilege  of  the  Asiento  in  1713. 
Before  that  Northern  States  like  New  York  had 
received  some  slaves  from  the  Dutch,  and  New 
England  had  early  developed  a trade  by  which  she 
imported  a number  of  house  servants.  Ships 
went  out  to  the  African  coast  with  rum,  sold  the 
rum,  and  brought  the  slaves  to  the  West  Indies; 
there  they  exchanged  the  slaves  for  sugar  and 
molasses  and  brought  the  molasses  back  to  New 
England,  to  be  made  into  rum  for  further  ex- 
ploits. After  the  Asiento  treaty  the  Negro  popu- 
lation increased  in  the  eighteenth  century  from 
about  50,000  in  1710  to  220,000  in  1750  and  to 
462,000  in  1770.  When  the  colonies  became  in- 
dependent, the  foreign  slave  trade  was  soon 
made  illegal;  but  illicit  trade,  annexation  of 
territory  and  natural  increase  enlarged  the  Negro 
population  from  a little  over  a million  at  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  to  four  and  a 
half  millions  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War 
and  to  about  ten  and  a quarter  millions  in  1914. 

The  present  so-called  Negro  population  of  the 
United  States  is: 

1.  A mixture  of  the  various  African  popula- 
tions, Bantu,  Sudanese,  west-coast  Negroes, 
some  dwarfs,  and  some  traces  of  Arab,  Berber, 
and  Semitic  blood. 


NEGRO  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  185 


2.  A mixture  of  these  strains  with  the  blood 
of  white  Americans  through  a system  of  con- 
cubinage of  colored  women  in  slavery  days, 
together  with  some  legal  intermarriage. 

The  figures  as  to  mulattoes  1 have  been  from 
time  to  time  officially  acknowledged  to  be  under- 
statements. Probably  one-third  of  the  Negroes 
of  the  United  States  have  distinct  traces  of  white 
blood.  This  blending  of  the  races  has  led  to  in- 
teresting human  types,  but  racial  prejudice  has 
hitherto  prevented  any  scientific  study  of  the 
matter.  In  general  the  Negro  population  in 
the  United  States  is  brown  in  color,  darkening  to 
almost  black  and  shading  off  in  the  other  direc- 
tion to  yellow  and  white,  and  is  indistinguish- 
able in  some  cases  from  the  white  population. 

Much  has  been  written  of  the  black  man  in 
America,  but  most  of  this  has  been  from  the  point 
of  view  of  the  whites,  so  that  we  know  of  the 

1 The  figures  given  by  the  census  are  as  follows: 

1850,  mulattoes  formed  11.2  per  cent  of  the  total  Negro 
population. 

1860,  mulattoes  formed  13.2  per  cent  of  the  total  Negro 
population. 

1870,  mulattoes  formed  12  per  cent  of  the  total  Negro 
population. 

1890,  mulattoes  formed  15.2  per  cent  of  the  total  Negro 
population. 

1910,  mulattoes  formed  20.9  per  cent  of  the  total  Negro 
population. 

Or  in  actual  numbers: 

1850,  405,751  mulattoes. 

1860,  588,352  mulattoes. 

1870,  585,601  mulattoes. 

1890,  1,132,060  mulattoes. 

1910,  2,050,686  mulattoes. 


186 


THE  NEGRO 


effect  of  Negro  slavery  on  the  whites,  the  strife 
among  the  whites  for  and  against  abolition,  and 
the  consequent  problem  of  the  Negro  so  far  as 
the  white  population  is  concerned. 

This  chapter,  however,  is  dealing  with  the 
matter  more  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  Negro 
group  itself,  and  seeking  to  show  what  slavery 
meant  to  them,  how  they  reacted  against  it, 
what  they  did  to  secure  their  freedom,  and  what 
they  are  doing  with  their  partial  freedom  to-day. 

The  slaves  landing  from  1619  onward  were 
received  by  the  colonies  at  first  as  laborers,  on 
the  same  plane  as  other  laborers.  For  a long 
time  there  was  in  law  no  distinction  between 
the  indented  white  servant  from  England  and 
the  black  servant  from  Africa,  except  in  the 
term  of  their  service.  Even  here  the  distinction 
was  not  always  observed,  some  of  the  whites 
being  kept  beyond  term  of  their  service  and 
Negroes  now  and  then  securing  their  freedom. 
Gradually  the  planters  realized  the  advantage 
of  laborers  held  for  life,  but  they  were  met  by 
certain  moral  difficulties.  The  opposition  to 
slavery  had  from  the  first  been  largely  stilled 
when  it  was  stated  that  this  was  a method  of 
converting  the  heathen  to  Christianity.  The 
corollary  was  that  when  a slave  was  converted 
he  became  free.  Up  to  1660  or  thereabouts  it 
seemed  accepted  in  most  colonies  and  in  the 
English  West  Indies  that  baptism  into  a Chris- 
tian church  would  free  a Negro  slave.  Masters, 
therefore,  were  reluctant  in  the  seventeenth  cen- 


NEGRO  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  187 


tury  to  have  their  slaves  receive  Christian  instruc- 
tion. Massachusetts  first  apparently  legislated 
on  this  matter  by  enacting  in  1641  that  slavery 
should  be  confined  to  captives  in  just  wars  “and 
such  strangers  as  willingly  sell  themselves  or  are 
sold  to  us,”1  meaning  by  “strangers”  apparently 
heathen,  but  saying  nothing  as  to  the  effect  of 
conversion.  Connecticut  adopted  similar  legis- 
lation in  1650,  and  Virginia  declared  in  1661 
that  Negroes  “are  incapable  of  making  satis- 
faction ” for  time  lost  in  running  away  by 
lengthening  their  time  of  services,  thus  implying 
that  they  were  slaves  for  life.  Maryland  de- 
clared in  1663  that  Negro  slaves  should  serve  du- 
rante vita,  but  it  was  not  until  1667  that  Virginia 
finally  plucked  up  courage  to  attack  the  issue 
squarely  and  declared  by  law:  “Baptism  doth 
not  alter  the  condition  of  the  person  as  to  his 
bondage  or  freedom,  in  order  that  diverse  mas- 
ters freed  from  this  doubt  may  more  carefully 
endeavor  the  propagation  of  Christianity.”  2 

The  transplanting  of  the  Negro  from  his 
African  clan  life  to  the  West  Indian  plantation 
was  a social  revolution.  Marriage  became  geo- 
graphical and  transient,  while  women  and  girls 
were  without  protection. 

The  private  home  as  a self-protective,  inde- 
pendent unit  did  not  exist.  That  powerful  insti- 
tution, the  polygamous  African  home,  was  al- 

1 Cf.  “The  Spanish  Jurist  Solorzaris,”  quoted  in  Helps: 
Spanish  Conquest,  IV,  381. 

* Hurd:  Law  of  Freedom  and  Bondage. 


188 


THE  NEGRO 


most  completely  destroyed,  and  in  its  place  in 
America  arose  sexual  promiscuity,  a weak  com- 
munity life,  with  common  dwelling,  meals,  and 
child  nurseries.  The  internal  slave  trade  tended 
further  to  weaken  natural  ties.  A small  number 
of  favored  house  servants  and  artisans  were 
raised  above  this  — had  their  private  homes,  came 
in  contact  with  the  culture  of  the  master  class, 
and  assimilated  much  of  American  civilization. 
This  was,  however,  exceptional;  broadly  speak- 
ing, the  greatest  social  effect  of  American  slavery 
was  to  substitute  for  the  polygamous  Negro  home 
a new  polygamy  less  guarded,  less  effective,  and 
less  civilized. 

At  first  sight  it  would  seem  that  slavery  com- 
pletely destroyed  every  vestige  of  spontaneous 
movement  among  the  Negroes.  This  is  not 
strictly  true.  The  vast  power  of  the  priest  in  the 
African  state  is  well  known;  his  realm  alone  — 
the  province  of  religion  and  medicine  — remained 
largely  unaffected  by  the  plantation  system. 
The  Negro  priest,  therefore,  early  became  an 
important  figure  on  the  plantation  and  found  his 
function  as  the  interpreter  of  the  supernatural, 
the  comforter  of  the  sorrowing,  and  as  the  one  who 
expressed,  rudely  but  picturesquely,  the  longing 
and  disappointment  and  resentment  of  a stolen 
people.  From  such  beginnings  arose  and  spread 
with  marvelous  rapidity  the  Negro  church,  the 
first  distinctively  Negro  American  social  insti- 
tution. It  was  not  at  first  by  any  means  a Chris- 
tian church,  but  a mere  adaptation  of  those  rites 


NEGRO  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  189 


of  fetish  which  in  America  is  termed  obe  wor- 
ship, or  “ voodooism.” 1 Association  and  mis- 
sionary effort  soon  gave  these  rites  a veneer  of 
Christianity  and  gradually,  after  two  centuries, 
the  church  became  Christian,  with  a simple 
Calvinistic  creed,  but  with  many  of  the  old  cus- 
toms still  clinging  to  the  services.  It  is  this 
historic  fact,  that  the  Negro  church  of  to-day  bases 
itself  upon  the  sole  surviving  social  institution 
of  the  African  fatherland,  that  accounts  for  its 
extraordinary  growth  and  vitality. 

The  slave  codes  at  first  were  really  labor  codes 
based  on  an  attempt  to  reestablish  in  America 
the  waning  feudalism  of  Europe.  The  laborers 
were  mainly  black  and  were  held  for  life.  Above 
them  came  the  artisans,  free  whites  with  a few 
blacks,  and  above  them  the  master  class.  The 
feudalism  called  for  the  plantation  system,  and 
the  plantation  system  as  developed  in  America, 
and  particularly  in  Virginia,  was  at  first  a feudal 
domain.  On  these  plantations  the  master  was 
practically  supreme.  The  slave  codes  in  early 
days  were  but  moderately  harsh,  allowing  punish- 
ment by  the  master,  but  restraining  him  in  ex- 

1 “Obi  (Obeah,  Obiah,  or  Obia)  is  the  adjective;  Obe  or 
Obi,  the  noun.  It  is  of  African  origin,  probably  connected 
with  Egyptian  Ob,  Aub,  or  Obron,  meaning  ‘serpent.’ 
Moses  forbids  Israelites  ever  to  consult  the  demon  Ob,  i.e., 
‘Charmer,  Wizard.’  The  Witch  of  Endor  is  called  Oub  or 
Ob.  Oubaois  is  the  name  of  the  Baselisk  or  Royal  Serpent, 
emblem  of  the  Sun,  and,  according  to  Horus  Appollo,  ‘the 
Ancient  Deity  of  Africa.’”  — Edwards:  West  Indies,  ed.  1819, 
II,  106-119.  Cf.  Johnston:  Negro  in  the  New  World,  pp.  65— 
66;  also  Atlanta  University  Publications,  No.  8,  pp.  5-6. 


190 


THE  NEGRO 


treme  cases  and  providing  for  care  of  the  slaves 
and  of  the  aged.  With  the  power,  however,  solely 
in  the  hands  of  the  master  class,  and  with  the 
master  supreme  on  his  own  plantation,  his  power 
over  the  slave  was  practically  what  he  wished  it 
to  be.  In  some  cases  the  cruelty  was  as  great 
as  on  the  worst  West  Indian  plantations.  In 
other  cases  the  rule  was  mild  and  paternal. 

Up  through  this  American  feudalism  the  Negro 
began  to  rise.  He  learned  in  the  eighteenth 
century  the  English  language,  he  began  to  be 
identified  with  the  Christian  church,  he  mingled 
his  blood  to  a considerable  extent  with  the  master 
class.  The  house  servants  particularly  were 
favored,  in  some  cases  receiving  education,  and 
the  number  of  free  Negroes  gradually  increased. 

Present-day  students  are  often  puzzled  at  the 
apparent  contradictions  of  Southern  slavery. 
One  hears,  on  the  one  hand,  of  the  staid  and  gentle 
patriarchy,  the  wide  and  sleepy  plantations  with 
lord  and  retainers,  ease  and  happiness;  on  the 
other  hand  one  hears  of  barbarous  cruelty  and 
unbridled  power  and  wide  oppression  of  men. 
Which  is  the  true  picture?  The  answer  is  simple: 
both  are  true.  They  are  not  opposite  sides  of  the 
same  shield;  they  are  different  shields.  They  are 
pictures,  on  the  one  hand,  of  house  service  in 
the  great  country  seats  and  in  the  towns,  and 
on  the  other  hand  of  the  field  laborers  who  raised 
the  great  tobacco,  rice,  and  cotton  crops.  We 
have  thus  not  only  carelessly  mixed  pictures  of 
what  were  really  different  kinds  of  slavery,  but 


NEGRO  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  191 


of  that  which  represented  different  degrees  in 
the  development  of  the  economic  system.  House 
sendee  was  the  older  feudal  idea  of  personal  re- 
tainership,  developed  in  Virginia  and  Carolina 
in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries. 
It  had  all  the  advantages  and  disadvantages  of 
such  a system;  the  advantage  of  the  strong  per- 
sonal tie  and  the  disadvantage  of  unyielding 
caste  distinctions,  with  the  resultant  immorali- 
ties. At  its  worst,  however,  it  was  a matter 
primarily  of  human  relationships. 

Out  of  this  older  type  of  slavery  in  the  northern 
South  there  developed,  during  the  eighteenth  and 
nineteenth  centuries,  in  the  southern  South  the 
type  of  slavery  which  corresponds  to  the  modem 
factory  system  in  its  worst  conceivable  form.  It 
represented  production  of  a staple  product  on  a 
large  scale;  between  the  owner  and  laborer  were 
interposed  the  overseer  and  the  drivers.  The 
slaves  were  whipped  and  driven  to  a mechanical 
task  system.  Wide  territory  was  needed,  so  that 
at  last  absentee  landlordship  was  common.  It 
was  this  latter  type  of  slavery  that  marked  the 
cotton  kingdom,  and  the  extension  of  the  area  of 
this  system  southward  and  westward  marked 
the  aggressive  world-conquering  visions  of  the 
slave  barons.  On  the  other  hand  it  was  the 
milder  and  far  different  Virginia  house  service 
and  the  personal  retainership  of  town  life  in  which 
most  white  children  grew  up;  it  was  this  that  im- 
pressed their  imaginations  and  which  they  have 
so  vividly  portrayed.  The  Negroes,  however, 


192 


THE  NEGRO 


knew  the  other  side,  for  it  was  under  the  harsher, 
heartless  driving  of  the  fields  that  fully  nine- 
tenths  of  them  lived. 

There  early  began  to  be  some  internal  develop- 
ment and  growth  of  self-consciousness  among 
the  Negroes : for  instance,  in  New  England  towns 
Negro  “governors”  were  elected.  This  was 
partly  an  African  custom  transplanted  and  partly 
an  endeavor  to  put  the  regulation  of  the  slaves 
into  their  own  hands.  Negroes  voted  in  those 
days:  for  instance,  in  North  Carolina  until 

1835  the  Constitution  extended  the  franchise  to 
every  freeman,  and  when  Negroes  were  dis- 
franchised in  1835,  several  hundred  colored  men 
were  deprived  of  the  vote.  In  fact,  as  Albert 
BushnellHartsays,  “ In  the  colonies  freed  Negroes, 
like  freed  indentured  white  servants,  acquired 
property,  founded  families,  and  came  into  the 
political  community  if  they  had  the  energy,  thrift, 
and  fortune  to  get  the  necessary  property.”  1 

The  humanitarian  movement  of  the  eighteenth 
century  was  active  toward  Negroes,  because  of 
the  part  which  they  played  in  the  Revolutionary 
War.  Negro  regiments  and  companies  were 
raised  in  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island,  and  a 
large  number  of  Negroes  were  members  of  the 
continental  armies  elsewhere.  Individual  Ne- 
groes distinguished  themselves.  It  is  estimated 
that  five  thousand  Negroes  fought  in  the  American 
armies. 

The  mass  of  the  Americans  considered  at  the 

1 Boston  Transcript,  March  24,  1906. 


NEGRO  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  193 


time  of  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  that 
Negro  slavery  was  doomed.  There  soon  came  a 
series  of  laws  emancipating  slaves  in  the  North: 
Vermont  began  in  1779,  followed  by  judicial 
decision  in  Massachusetts  in  1780  and  gradual 
emancipation  in  Pennsylvania  beginning  the 
same  year;  emancipation  was  accomplished  in 
New  Hampshire  in  1783,  and  in  Connecticut  and 
Rhode  Island  in  1784.  The  momentous  exclu- 
sion of  slavery  in  the  Northwest  Territory  took 
place  in  1787,  and  gradual  emancipation  began 
in  New  York  and  New  Jersey  in  1799  and  1804. 

Beneficial  and  insurance  societies  began  to 
appear  among  colored  people.  Nearly  every 
town  of  any  size  in  Virginia  in  the  early  eight- 
eenth century  had  Negro  organizations  for  car- 
ing for  the  sick  and  burying  the  dead.  As  the 
number  of  free  Negroes  increased,  particularly 
in  the  North,  these  financial  societies  began  to 
be  openly  formed.  One  of  the  earliest  was  the 
Free  African  Society  of  Philadelphia.  This  even- 
tually became  the  present  African  Methodist 
Church,  which  has  to-day  half  a million  mem- 
bers and  over  eleven  million  dollars’  worth  of 
property. 

Negroes  began  to  be  received  into  the  white 
church  bodies  in  separate  congregations,  and 
before  1807  there  is  the  record  of  the  formation 
of  eight  such  Negro  churches.  This  brought  forth 
leaders  who  were  usually  preachers  in  these 
churches.  Richard  Allen,  the  founder  of  the 
African  Methodist  Church,  was  one;  Lot  Carey, 


194 


THE  NEGRO 


one  of  the  founders  of  Liberia,  was  another.  In 
the  South  there  was  John  Chavis,  who  passed 
through  a regular  course  of  studies  at  what  is 
now  Washington  and  Lee  University.  He  started 
a school  for  young  white  men  in  North  Carolina 
and  had  among  his  pupils  a United  States  senator, 
sons  of  a chief  justice  of  North  Carolina,  a gover- 
nor of  the  state,  and  many  others.  He  was  a 
full-blooded  Negro,  but  a Southern  writer  says 
that  “all  accounts  agree  that  John  Chavis  was  a 
gentleman.  He  was  received  socially  among  the 
best  whites  and  asked  to  table.”  1 

In  the  war  of  1812  thirty -three  hundred  Negroes 
helped  Jackson  win  the  battle  of  New  Orleans, 
and  numbers  fought  in  New  York  State  and  in 
the  navy  under  Perry,  Channing,  and  others. 
Phyllis  Wheatley,  a Negro  girl,  wrote  poetry, 
and  the  mulatto,  Benjamin  Banneker,  published 
one  of  the  first  American  series  of  almanacs. 

In  fine,  it  seemed  in  the  early  years  of  the 
nineteenth  century  that  slavery  in  the  United 
States  would  gradually  disappear  and  that  the 
Negro  would  have,  in  time,  a man’s  chance.  A 
change  came,  however,  between  1820  and  1830, 
and  it  is  directly  traceable  to  the  industrial 
revolution  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

Between  1738  and  1830  there  had  come  a re- 
markable series  of  inventions  which  revolutionized 
the  methods  of  making  cloth.  This  series  in- 
cluded the  invention  of  the  fly  shuttle,  the  card- 
ing machine,  the  steam  engine,  and  the  power 
1 Bassett:  North  Carolina,  pp.  73-76. 


NEGRO  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  195 


loom.  The  world  began  to  look  about  for  a 
cheaper  and  larger  supply  of  fiber  for  weaving. 
It  was  found  in  the  cotton  plant,  and  the  southern 
United  States  was  especially  adapted  to  its  cul- 
ture. The  invention  of  the  cotton  gin  removed 
the  last  difficulties.  The  South  now  had  a crop 
which  could  be  attended  to  by  unskilled  labor 
and  for  which  there  was  practically  unlimited 
demand.  There  was  land,  and  rich  land,  in 
plenty.  The  result  was  that  the  cotton  crop  in 
the  United  States  increased  from  8,000  bales  in 
1790  to  650,000  bales  in  1820,  to  2,500,000  bales 
in  1850,  and  to  4,000,000  bales  in  1860. 

In  this  growth  one  sees  the  economic  founda- 
tion of  the  new  slavery  in  the  United  States, 
which  rose  in  the  second  decade  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  Manifestly  the  fatal  procras- 
tination in  dealing  with  slavery  in  the  eighteenth 
century  received  in  the  nineteenth  century  its 
terrible  reward.  The  change  in  the  attitude 
toward  slavery  was  manifest  in  various  ways. 
The  South  no  longer  excused  slavery,  but  began 
to  defend  it  as  an  economic  system.  The  en- 
forcement of  the  slave  trade  laws  became  no- 
toriously lax  and  there  was  a tendency  to  make 
slave  codes  harsher. 

This  led  to  retaliation  on  the  part  of  the 
Negroes.  There  had  not  been  in  the  United 
States  before  this  many  attempts  at  insurrection. 
The  slaves  were  distributed  over  a wide  territory, 
and  before  they  became  intelligent  enough  to 
cooperate  the  chance  of  emancipation  was 


196 


THE  NEGRO 


held  before  them.  Several  small  insurrections 
are  alluded  to  in  South  Carolina  early  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  and  one  by  Cato  at  Stono  in 
1740  caused  widespread  alarm.  The  Negro 
plot  in  New  York  in  1712  put  the  city  into 
hysterics.  There  was  no  further  plotting  on 
any  scale  until  the  Haytian  revolt,  when  Gabriel 
in  Virginia  made  an  abortive  attempt.  In 
1822  a free  Negro,  Denmark  Vesey,  in  South 
Carolina,  failed  in  a well-laid  plot,  and  ten  years 
after  that,  in  1831,  Nat  Turner  led  his  insurrec- 
tion in  Virginia  and  killed  fifty-one  persons. 
The  result  of  this  insurrection  was  to  crystallize 
tendencies  toward  harshness  which  the  economic 
revolution  was  making  advisable. 

A wave  of  legislation  passed  over  the  South, 
prohibiting  the  slaves  from  learning  to  read  and 
write,  forbidding  Negroes  to  preach,  and  inter- 
fering with  Negro  religious  meetings.  Virginia 
declared  in  1831  that  neither  slaves  nor  free 
Negroes  might  preach,  nor  could  they  attend 
religious  service  at  night  without  permission. 
In  North  Carolina  slaves  and  free  Negroes  were 
forbidden  to  preach,  exhort,  or  teach  “in  any 
prayer  meeting  or  other  association  for  worship 
where  slaves  of  different  families  are  collected 
together  ” on  penalty  of  not  more  than  thirty -nine 
lashes.  Maryland  and  Georgia  and  other  states 
had  similar  laws. 

The  real  effective  revolt  of  the  Negro  against 
slavery  was  not,  however,  by  fighting,  but  by 
running  away,  usually  to  the  North,  which  had 


NEGRO  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  197 


been  recently  freed  from  slavery.  From  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  slaves  began 
to  escape  in  considerable  numbers.  Four  geo- 
graphical paths  were  chiefly  followed:  one,  lead- 
ing southward,  was  the  line  of  swamps  along  the 
coast  from  Norfolk,  Virginia,  to  the  northern 
border  of  Florida.  This  gave  rise  to  the  Negro 
element  among  the  Indians  in  Florida  and  led 
to  the  two  Seminole  wars  of  1817  and  1835. 
These  wars  were  really  slave  raids  to  make  the 
Indians  give  up  the  Negro  and  half-breed  slaves 
domiciled  among  them.  The  wars  cost  the  United 
States  ten  million  dollars  and  two  thousand  lives. 

The  great  Appalachian  range,  with  its  abut- 
ting mountains,  was  the  safest  path  northward. 
Through  Tennessee  and  Kentucky  and  the  heart 
of  the  Cumberland  Mountains,  using  the  lime- 
stone caverns,  was  the  third  route,  and  the  valley 
of  the  Mississippi  was  the  western  tunnel. 

These  runaways  and  the  freedmen  of  the 
North  soon  began  to  form  a group  of  people  who 
sought  to  consider  the  problem  of  slavery  and 
the  destiny  of  the  Negro  in  America.  They 
passed  through  many  psychological  changes  of 
attitude  in  the  years  from  1700  to  1850.  At 
first,  in  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
there  was  but  one  thought:  revolt  and  revenge. 
The  development  of  the  latter  half  of  the  century 
brought  an  attitude  of  hope  and  adjustment 
and  emphasized  the  differences  between  the  slave 
and  the  free  Negro.  The  first  part  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  brought  two  movements:  among 


198 


THE  NEGRO 


the  free  Negroes  an  effort  at  self-development 
and  protection  through  organization;  among 
slaves  and  recent  fugitives  a distinct  reversion 
to  the  older  idea  of  revolt. 

As  the  new  industrial  slavery,  following  the  rise 
of  the  cotton  kingdom,  began  to  press  harder,  a 
period  of  storm  and  stress  ensued  in  the  black 
world,  and  in  1829  came  the  first  full- voiced, 
almost  hysterical  protest  of  a Negro  against 
slavery  and  the  color  line  in  David  Walker’s 
Appeal,  which  aroused  Southern  legislatures  to 
action. 

The  decade  1830—40  was  a severe  period  of 
trial.  Not  only  were  the  chains  of  slavery  tighter 
in  the  South,  but  in  the  North  the  free  Negro 
was  beginning  to  feel  the  ostracism  and  compe- 
tition of  white  workingmen,  native  and  foreign. 
In  Philadelphia,  between  1829  and  1849,  six 
mobs  of  hoodlums  and  foreigners  murdered  and 
maltreated  Negroes.  In  the  Middle  West  harsh 
black  laws  which  had  been  enacted  in  earlier 
days  were  hauled  from  their  hiding  places  and 
put  into  effect.  No  Negro  was  allowed  to  settle 
in  Ohio  unless  he  gave  bond  within  twenty  days 
to  the  amount  of  five  thousand  dollars  to  guaran- 
tee his  good  behavior  and  support.  Harboring 
or  concealing  fugitives  was  heavily  fined,  and 
no  Negro  could  give  evidence  in  any  case  where 
a white  man  was  party.  These  laws  began  to 
be  enforced  in  1829  and  for  three  days  riots  went 
on  in  Cincinnati  and  Negroes  were  shot  and 
killed.  Aroused,  the  Negroes  sent  a deputation 


NEGRO  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  199 


to  Canada  where  they  were  offered  asylum. 
Fully  two  thousand  migrated  from  Ohio.  Later 
large  numbers  from  other  parts  of  the  United 
States  joined  them. 

In  1830-31  the  first  Negro  conventions  were 
called  in  Philadelphia  to  consider  the  desperate 
condition  of  the  Negro  population,  and  in  1833 
the  convention  met  again  and  local  societies  were 
formed.  The  first  Negro  paper  was  issued  in 
New  York  in  1827,  while  later  emancipation  in 
the  British  West  Indies  brought  some  cheer 
in  the  darkness. 

A system  of  separate  Negro  schools  was  es- 
tablished and  the  little  band  of  abolitionists  led 
by  Garrison  and  others  appeared.  In  spite  of 
all  the  untoward  circumstances,  therefore,  the 
internal  development  of  the  free  Negro  in  the 
North  went  on.  The  Negro  population  in- 
creased twenty-three  per  cent  between  1830  and 
1840;  Philadelphia  had,  in  1838,  one  hundred 
small  beneficial  societies,  while  Ohio  Negroes  had 
ten  thousand  acres  of  land.  The  slave  mutiny 
on  the  Creole,  the  establishment  of  the  Negro 
Odd  Fellows,  and  the  growth  of  the  Negro 
churches  all  indicated  advancement. 

Between  1830  and  1850  the  concerted  cooper- 
ation to  assist  fugitives  came  to  be  known  as  the 
Underground  Railroad.  It  was  an  organization 
not  simply  of  white  philanthropists,  but  the 
cooperation  of  Negroes  in  the  most  difficult 
part  of  the  work  made  it  possible.  Hundreds  of 
Negroes  visited  the  slave  states  to  entice  the 


200 


THE  NEGRO 


slaves  away,  and  the  list  of  Underground  Rail- 
road operators  given  by  Siebert  contains  one 
hundred  and  twenty -eight  names  of  Negroes. 
In  Canada  and  in  the  northern  United  States 
there  was  a secret  society,  known  as  the  League 
of  Freedom,  which  especially  worked  to  help 
slaves  run  away.  Harriet  Tubman  was  one  of 
the  most  energetic  of  these  slave  conductors 
and  brought  away  several  thousand  slaves. 
William  Lambert,  a colored  man,  was  reputed 
between  1829  and  1862  to  have  aided  in  the 
escape  of  thirty  thousand. 

The  decade  1840-50  was  a period  of  hope 
and  uplift  for  the  Negro  group,  with  clear  evi- 
dences of  distinct  self-assertion  and  advance. 
A few  well-trained  lawyers  and  physicians  ap- 
peared, and  colored  men  took  their  place  among 
the  abolition  orators.  The  catering  business  in 
Philadelphia  and  other  cities  fell  largely  into 
their  hands,  and  some  small  merchants  arose 
here  and  there.  Above  all,  Frederick  Douglass 
made  his  first  speech  in  1841  and  thereafter 
became  one  of  the  most  prominent  figures  in 
the  abolition  crusade.  A new  series  of  national 
conventions  began  to  assemble  late  in  the  forties, 
and  the  delegates  were  drawn  from  the  artisans 
and  higher  servants,  showing  a great  increase 
of  efficiency  in  the  rank  and  file  of  the  free 
Negroes. 

By  1850  the  Negroes  had  increased  to  three 
and  a half  million.  Those  in  Canada  were  being 
organized  in  settlements  and  were  accumulating 


NEGRO  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  201 


property.  The  escape  of  fugitive  slaves  was 
systematized  and  some  of  the  most  representa- 
tive conventions  met.  One  particularly,  in  1854, 
grappled  frankly  with  the  problem  of  emigration. 
It  looked  as  though  it  was  going  to  be  impossible 
for  Negroes  to  remain  in  the  United  States  and 
be  free.  As  early  as  1788  a Negro  union  of  New- 
port, Rhode  Island,  had  proposed  a general 
exodus  to  Africa.  John  and  Paul  Cuffe,  after 
petitioning  for  the  right  to  vote  in  1780,  started 
in  1815  for  Africa,  organizing  an  expedition  at 
their  own  expense  which  cost  four  thousand 
dollars.  Lot  Carey  organized  the  African  Mis- 
sion Society  in  1813,  and  the  first  Negro  college 
graduate  went  to  Liberia  in  1829  and  became 
superintendent  of  public  schools.  The  Coloni- 
zation Society  encouraged  this  migration,  and  the 
Negroes  themselves  had  organized  the  Canadian 
exodus. 

The  Rochester  Negro  convention  in  1853  pro- 
nounced against  migration,  but  nevertheless 
emissaries  were  sent  in  various  directions  to 
see  what  inducements  could  be  offered.  One 
went  to  the  Niger  valley,  one  to  Central  America, 
and  one  to  Hayti.  The  Haytian  trip  was  suc- 
cessful and  about  two  thousand  black  emigrants 
eventually  settled  in  Hayti. 

Delaney,  who  went  to  Africa,  concluded  a 
treaty  with  eight  kings  offering  inducements  to 
Negroes,  but  nothing  came  of  it.  In  1853  Negroes 
like  Purvis  and  Barbadoes  helped  in  the  forma- 
tion of  the  American  Anti-slavery  society,  and 


202 


THE  NEGRO 


for  a while  colored  men  cooperated  with  John 
Brown  and  probably  would  have  given  him  con- 
siderable help  if  they  had  thoroughly  known  his 
plans.  As  it  was,  six  or  seven  of  his  twenty-two 
followers  were  Negroes. 

Meantime  the  slave  power  was  impelled  by 
the  high  price  of  slaves  and  the  exhaustion  of 
cotton  land  to  make  increased  demands.  Slavery 
was  forced  north  of  Mason  and  Dixon’s  line  in 
1820;  a new  slave  empire  with  thousands  of 
slaves  was  annexed  in  1850,  and  a fugitive  slave 
law  was  passed  which  endangered  the  liberty  of 
every  free  Negro;  finally  a determined  attempt 
was  made  to  force  slavery  into  the  Northwest 
in  competition  with  free  white  labor,  and  less 
effective  but  powerful  movements  arose  to  annex 
more  slave  territory  to  the  south  and  to  reopen 
the  African  slave  trade. 

It  looked  like  a triumphal  march  for  the  slave 
barons,  but  each  step  cost  more  than  the  last. 
Missouri  gave  rise  to  the  early  abolitionist  move- 
ment. Mexico  and  the  fugitive  slave  law  aroused 
deep  opposition  in  the  North,  and  Kansas  de- 
veloped an  attack  upon  the  free  labor  system, 
not  simply  of  the  North,  but  of  the  civilized 
world.  The  result  was  war;  but  the  war  was  not 
against  slavery.  It  was  fought  to  protect  free 
white  laborers  against  the  competition  of  slaves, 
and  it  was  thought  possible  to  do  this  by  segregat- 
ing slavery. 

The  first  thing  that  vexed  the  Northern  armies 
on  Southern  soil  during  the  war  was  the  question 


NEGRO  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  203 


of  the  disposition  of  the  fugitive  slaves,  who 
immediately  began  to  arrive  in  increasing  num- 
bers. Butler  confiscated  them,  Fremont  freed 
them,  and  Halleck  caught  and  returned  them; 
but  their  numbers  swelled  to  such  large  propor- 
tions that  the  mere  economic  problem  of  their 
presence  overshadowed  everything  else,  especially 
after  the  Emancipation  Proclamation.  Lincoln 
was  glad  to  have  them  come  after  once  he  realized 
their  strength  to  the  Confederacy. 

The  Emancipation  Proclamation  was  forced, 
not  simply  by  the  necessity  of  paralyzing  indus- 
try in  the  South,  but  also  by  the  necessity  of 
employing  Negro  soldiers.  During  the  first  two 
years  of  the  war  no  one  wanted  Negro  soldiers. 
It  was  declared  to  be  a “white  man’s  war.” 
General  Hunter  tried  to  raise  a regiment  in  South 
Carolina,  but  the  War  Department  disavowed 
the  act.  In  Louisiana  the  Negroes  were  anxious 
to  enlist,  but  were  held  off.  In  the  meantime 
the  war  did  not  go  as  well  as  the  North  had  hoped, 
and  on  the  twenty-sixth  of  January,  1863,  the 
Secretary  of  War  authorized  the  Governor  of 
Massachusetts  to  raise  two  regiments  of  Negro 
troops.  Frederick  Douglass  and  others  began 
the  work  with  enthusiasm,  and  in  the  end  one 
hundred  and  eighty-seven  thousand  Negroes  en- 
listed in  the  Northern  armies,  of  whom  seventy 
thousand  were  killed  and  wounded.  The  conduct 
of  these  troops  wTas  exemplary.  They  were  in- 
dispensable in  camp  duties  and  brave  on  the 
field,  where  they  fought  in  two  hundred  and 


204 


THE  NEGRO 


thirteen  battles.  General  Banks  wrote,  “Their 
conduct  was  heroic.  No  troops  could  be  more 
determined  or  more  daring.”  1 

The  assault  on  Fort  Wagner,  led  by  a thousand 
black  soldiers  under  the  white  Colonel  Shaw, 
is  one  of  the  greatest  deeds  of  desperate  bravery 
on  record.  On  the  other  hand  the  treatment  of 
Negro  soldiers  when  captured  by  the  Confed- 
erates was  barbarous.  At  Fort  Pillow,  after 
the  surrender  of  the  federal  troops,  the  colored 
regiment  was  indiscriminately  butchered  and 
some  of  them  were  buried  alive. 

Abraham  Lincoln  said,  “The  slightest  knowl- 
edge of  arithmetic  will  prove  to  any  man  that  the 
rebel  armies  cannot  be  destroyed  with  Demo- 
cratic strategy.  It  would  sacrifice  all  the  -white 
men  of  the  North  to  do  it.  There  are  now  in 
the  service  of  the  United  States  near  two  hun- 
dred thousand  able-bodied  colored  men,  most  of 
them  under  arms,  defending  and  acquiring  Union 
territory.  . . . Abandon  all  the  posts  now  gar- 
risoned by  black  men;  take  two  hundred  thou- 
sand men  from  our  side  and  put  them  in  the 
battlefield  or  cornfield  against  us,  and  we  would 
be  compelled  to  abandon  the  war  in  three  weeks.”  2 
Emancipation  thus  came  as  a war  measure  to 
break  the  power  of  the  Confederacy,  preserve 
the  Union,  and  gain  the  sympathy  of  the  civilized 
world. 

However,  two  hundred  and  forty-four  years 

1 Cf.  Wilson:  The  Black  Phalanx. 

3 Wilson:  The  Black  Phalanx,  p.  108. 


NEGRO  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  205 


of  slavery  could  not  be  stopped  by  edict.  There 
were  legal  difficulties,  the  whole  slow  problem  of 
economic  readjustment,  and  the  subtle  and  far- 
reaching  questions  of  future  race  relations. 

The  peculiar  circumstances  of  emancipation 
forced  the  legal  and  political  difficulties  to  the 
front,  and  these  were  so  striking  that  they  have 
since  obscured  the  others  in  the  eyes  of  students. 
Quite  unexpectedly  and  without  forethought  the 
nation  had  emancipated  four  million  slaves. 
Once  the  deed  was  done,  the  majority  of  the  nation 
was  glad  and  recognized  that  this  was,  after  all, 
the  only  result  of  a fearful  four  years’  war  which 
in  any  degree  justified  it.  But  how  was  the  result 
to  be  secured  for  all  time?  There  were  three 
possibilities:  (1)  to  declare  the  slave  free  and 

leave  him  at  the  mercy  of  his  former  masters; 
(2)  to  establish  a careful  government  guardian- 
ship designed  to  guide  the  slave  from  legal  to 
real  economic  freedom;  (3)  to  give  the  Negro 
the  political  power  to  guard  himself  as  well  as 
he  could  during  this  development.  It  is  very 
easy  to  forget  that  the  United  States  government 
tried  each  one  of  these  in  succession  and  was 
literally  forced  to  adopt  the  third,  because  the 
first  had  utterly  failed  and  the  second  was 
thought  too  “paternal”  and  especially  too 
costly.  To  leave  the  Negroes  helpless  after  a 
paper  edict  of  emancipation  was  manifestly  im- 
possible. It  would  have  meant  that  the  war  had 
been  fought  in  vain. 

Carl  Schurz,  who  traversed  the  South  just 


206 


THE  NEGRO 


after  the  war,  said,  “A  veritable  reign  of  terror 
prevailed  in  many  parts  of  the  South.  The  Negro 
found  scant  justice  in  the  local  courts  against  the 
white  man.  He  could  look  for  protection  only 
to  the  military  forces  of  the  United  States  still 
garrisoning  the  states  lately  in  rebellion  and  to 
the  Freedmen’s  Bureau.” 1 This  Freedmen’s 
Bureau  was  proposed  by  Charles  Sumner.  If 
it  had  been  presented  to-day  instead  of  fifty  years 
ago,  it  would  have  been  regarded  as  a proposal 
far  less  revolutionary  than  the  state  insurance 
of  England  and  Germany.  A half  century  ago, 
however,  and  in  a country  which  gave  the 
laisser  faire  economics  their  extremest  trial, 
the  Freedmen’s  Bureau  struck  the  whole  nation 
as  unthinkable,  save  as  a very  temporary  ex- 
pedient and  to  relieve  the  more  pointed  forms  of 
distress  following  war.  Yet  the  proposals  of  the 
Bureau  were  both  simple  and  sensible: 

1.  To  oversee  the  making  and  enforcement 
of  wage  contracts  for  freedmen. 

2.  To  appear  in  the  courts  as  the  freedmen’s 
best  friend. 

3.  To  furnish  the  freedmen  with  a minimum 
of  land  and  of  capital. 

4.  To  establish  schools. 

5.  To  furnish  such  institutions  of  relief  as 
hospitals,  outdoor  relief  stations,  etc. 

How  a sensible  people  could  expect  really  to 
conduct  a slave  into  freedom  with  less  than  this 
it  is  hard  to  see.  Even  with  such  tutelage  ex- 
1 American  Historical  Review,  Vol.  XV. 


NEGRO  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  207 


tending  over  a period  of  two  or  three  decades, 
the  ultimate  end  had  to  be  enfranchisement  and 
political  and  social  freedom  for  those  freedmen 
who  attained  a certain  set  standard.  Otherwise 
the  whole  training  had  neither  object  nor  guar- 
antee. Precisely  on  this  account  the  former 
masters  opposed  the  Freedmen’s  Bureau  with 
all  their  influence.  They  did  not  want  the  Negro 
trained  or  really  freed,  and  they  criticized  mer- 
cilessly the  many  mistakes  of  the  new  Bureau. 

The  North  at  first  thought  to  pay  for  the  main 
cost  of  the  Freedmen’s  Bureau  by  confiscating 
the  property  of  former  slave  owners;  but  finding 
this  not  in  accordance  with  law,  they  realized 
that  they  were  embarking  on  an  enterprise  which 
bade  fair  to  add  many  millions  to  the  already 
staggering  cost  of  the  war.  When,  therefore, 
they  saw  that  the  abolition  of  slavery  could  not 
be  left  to  the  white  South  and  could  not  be  done 
by  the  North  without  time  and  money,  they  de- 
termined to  put  the  responsibility  on  the  Negro 
himself.  This  was  without  a doubt  a tremendous 
experiment,  but  with  all  its  manifest  mistakes  it 
succeeded  to  an  astonishing  degree.  It  made  the 
immediate  reestablishment  of  the  old  slavery 
impossible,  and  it  was  probably  the  only  quick 
method  of  doing  this.  It  gave  the  freedmen’s 
sons  a chance  to  begin  their  education.  It 
diverted  the  energy  of  the  white  South  slavery 
to  the  recovery  of  political  power,  and  in  this 
interval,  small  as  it  was,  the  Negro  took  his 
first  steps  toward  economic  freedom. 


208 


THE  NEGRO 


The  difficulties  that  stared  reconstruction 
politicians  in  the  face  were  these:  (1)  They  must 
act  quickly.  (2)  Emancipation  had  increased 
the  political  power  of  the  South  by  one-sixth. 
Could  this  increased  political  power  be  put  in 
the  hands  of  those  who,  in  defense  of  slavery, 
had  disrupted  the  Union?  (3)  How  was  the 
abolition  of  slavery  to  be  made  effective?  (4) 
What  was  to  be  the  political  position  of  the 
freedmen? 

The  Freedmen’s  Bureau  in  its  short  life  ac- 
complished a great  task.  Carl  Schurz,  in  1865, 
felt  warranted  in  saying  that  “not  half  of  the 
labor  that  has  been  done  in  the  South  this  year, 
or  will  be  done  there  next  year,  would  have  been 
or  would  be  done  but  for  the  exertions  of  the 
Freedmen’s  Bureau.  ...  No  other  agency  except 
one  placed  there  by  the  national  government 
could  have  wielded  that  moral  power  whose  in- 
terposition was  so  necessary  to  prevent  Southern 
society  from  falling  at  once  into  the  chaos  of  a 
general  collision  between  its  different  elements.”  1 
Notwithstanding  this  the  Bureau  was  temporary, 
was  regarded  as  a makeshift,  and  soon  aban- 
doned. 

Meantime  partial  Negro  suffrage  seemed  not 
only  just,  but  almost  inevitable.  Lincoln,  in 
1864,  “cautiously”  suggested  to  Louisiana’s 
private  consideration  “whether  some  of  the 
colored  people  may  not  be  let  in  as,  for  instance, 
the  very  intelligent,  and  especially  those  who 
1 Report  to  President  Johnson. 


NEGRO  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  209 


fought  gallantly  in  our  ranks.  They  would  prob- 
ably help  in  some  trying  time  to  come,  to  keep 
the  jewel  of  liberty  in  the  family  of  freedom.” 
Indeed,  the  “family  of  freedom”  in  Louisiana 
being  somewhat  small  just  then,  who  else  was 
to  be  intrusted  with  the  “jewel”?  Later  and 
for  different  reasons  Johnson,  in  1865,  wrote  to 
Mississippi,  “If  you  could  extend  the  elective 
franchise  to  all  persons  of  color  who  can  read  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  in  English  and 
write  their  name,  and  to  all  persons  of  color  who 
own  real  estate  valued  at  not  less  than  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  dollars,  and  pay  taxes  thereon, 
you  would  completely  disarm  the  adversary  and 
set  an  example  the  other  states  will  follow.  This 
you  can  do  with  perfect  safety,  and  you  thus 
place  the  Southern  States,  in  reference  to  free 
persons  of  color,  upon  the  same  basis  with  the 
free  states.  I hope  and  trust  your  convention 
will  do  this.” 

The  Negroes  themselves  began  to  ask  for 
the  suffrage.  The  Georgia  convention  in 
Augusta  (1866)  advocated  “a  proposition  to 
give  those  who  could  write  and  read  well  and 
possessed  a certain  property  qualification  the 
right  of  suffrage.”  The  reply  of  the  South  to 
these  suggestions  was  decisive.  In  Tennessee 
alone  was  any  action  attempted  that  even  sug- 
gested possible  Negro  suffrage  in  the  future,  and 
that  failed.  In  all  other  states  the  “Black 
Codes”  adopted  were  certainly  not  reassuring 
to  the  friends  of  freedom.  To  be  sure,  it  was  not 


210 


THE  NEGRO 


a time  to  look  for  calm,  cool,  thoughtful  action 
on  the  part  of  the  white  South.  Their  economic 
condition  was  pitiable,  their  fear  of  Negro  free- 
dom genuine.  Yet  it  was  reasonable  to  expect 
from  them  something  less  than  repression  and 
utter  reaction  toward  slavery.  To  some  extent 
this  expectation  was  fulfilled.  The  abolition  of 
slavery  was  recognized  on  the  statute  book,  and 
the  civil  rights  of  owning  property  and  appearing 
as  a witness  in  cases  in  which  he  was  a party 
were  generally  granted  the  Negro;  yet  with  these 
in  many  cases  went  harsh  and  unbearable  regu- 
lations which  largely  neutralized  the  conces- 
sions and  certainly  gave  ground  for  an  assumption 
that,  once  free,  the  South  would  virtually  re- 
enslave the  Negro.  The  colored  people  themselves 
naturally  feared  this,  protesting,  as  in  Missis- 
sippi, “against  the  reactionary  policy  prevailing 
and  expressing  the  fear  that  the  legislature  will 
pass  such  proscriptive  laws  as  will  drive  the 
freedmen  from  the  state,  or  practically  reeenslave 
them.” 

The  codes  spoke  for  themselves.  As  Burgess 
says,  “Almost  every  act,  word,  or  gesture  of  the 
Negro,  not  consonant  with  good  taste  and  good 
manners  as  well  as  good  morals,  was  made  a 
crime  or  misdemeanor  for  which  he  could  first 
be  fined  by  the  magistrates  and  then  be  con- 
signed to  a condition  of  almost  slavery  for  an 
indefinite  time,  if  he  could  not  pay  the  bill.”  1 

All  things  considered,  it  seems  probable  that, 

1 Reconstruction  and  the  Constitution. 


NEGRO  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  211 


if  the  South  had  been  permitted  to  have  its 
way  in  1865,  the  harshness  of  Negro  slavery 
would  have  been  mitigated  so  as  to  make  slave 
trading  difficult,  and  so  as  to  make  it  possible 
for  a Negro  to  hold  property  and  appear  in  some 
cases  in  court ; but  that  in  most  other  respects 
the  blacks  would  have  remained  in  slavery. 

What  could  prevent  this?  A Freedmen’s 
Bureau  established  for  ten,  twenty,  or  forty 
years,  with  a careful  distribution  of  land  and 
capital  and  a system  of  education  for  the  chil- 
dren, might  have  prevented  such  an  extension 
of  slavery.  But  the  country  would  not  listen  to 
such  a comprehensive  plan.  A restricted  grant 
of  the  suffrage  voluntarily  made  by  the  states 
would  have  been  a reassuring  proof  of  a desire 
to  treat  the  freedmen  fairly  and  would  have 
balanced  in  part,  at  least,  the  increased  politi- 
cal power  of  the  South.  There  was  no  such  dis- 
position evident. 

In  Louisiana,  for  instance,  under  the  proposed 
reconstruction  “not  one  Negro  was  allowed  to 
vote,  though  at  that  very  time  the  wealthy 
intelligent  free  colored  people  of  the  state  paid 
taxes  on  property  assessed  at  fifteen  million 
dollars  and  many  of  them  were  well  known  for 
their  patriotic  zeal  and  love  for  the  Union.”  1 

Thus  the  arguments  for  universal  Negro  suf- 
frage from  the  start  were  strong  and  are  still 
strong,  and  no  one  would  question  their  strength 
were  it  not  for  the  assumption  that  the  experi- 
1 Brewster:  Sketches,  etc. 


212 


THE  NEGRO 


ment  failed.  Frederick  Douglass  said  to  Presi- 
dent Johnson,  “Your  noble  and  humane  pred- 
ecessor placed  in  our  hands  the  sword  to  assist 
in  saving  the  nation,  and  we  do  hope  that  you, 
his  able  successor,  will  favorably  regard  the  plac- 
ing in  our  hands  the  ballot  with  which  to  save 
ourselves.” 1 

Carl  Schurz  wrote,  “It  is  idle  to  say  that  it 
will  be  time  to  speak  of  Negro  suffrage  when  the 
whole  colored  race  will  be  educated,  for  the 
ballot  may  be  necessary  to  him  to  secure  his 
education.”  2 

The  granting  of  full  Negro  suffrage  meant  one 
of  two  alternatives  to  the  South:  (1)  The  uplift 
of  the  Negro  for  sheer  self-preservation.  This  is 
what  Schurz  and  the  saner  North  expected. 
As  one  Southern  school  superintendent  said, 
“The  elevation  of  this  class  is  a matter  of  prime 
importance,  since  a ballot  in  the  hands  of  a black 
citizen  is  quite  as  potent  as  in  the  hands  of  a 
white  one.”  Or  (2)  Negro  suffrage  meant  a 
determined  concentration  of  Southern  effort  by 
actual  force  to  deprive  the  Negro  of  the  ballot  or 
nullify  its  use.  This  last  is  what  really  happened. 
But  even  in  this  case,  so  much  energy  was  taken 
in  keeping  the  Negro  from  voting  that  the  plan 
for  keeping  him  in  virtual  slavery  and  denying 
him  education  partially  failed.  It  took  ten  years 
to  nullify  Negro  suffrage  in  part  and  twenty  years 
to  escape  the  fear  of  federal  intervention.  In  these 

1 McPherson:  Reconstruction,  p.  52. 

5 Report  to  the  President,  1865. 


NEGRO  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  21S 


twenty  years  a vast  number  of  Negroes  had  arisen 
so  far  as  to  escape  slavery  forever.  Debt  peonage 
could  be  fastened  on  part  of  the  rural  South  and 
was;  but  even  here  the  new  Negro  landholder 
appeared.  Thus  despite  everything  the  Fifteenth 
Amendment,  and  that  alone,  struck  the  death 
knell  of  slavery. 

The  steps  toward  the  Fifteenth  Amendment 
were  taken  slowly.  First  Negroes  were  allowed 
to  take  part  in  reconstructing  the  state  govern- 
ments. This  was  inevitable  if  loyal  governments 
were  to  be  obtained.  Next  the  restored  state 
governments  were  directed  to  enfranchise  all  citi- 
zens, black  or  white,  or  have  their  representation 
in  Congress  cut  down  proportionately.  Finally 
the  United  States  said  the  last  word  of  simple  jus- 
tice: the  states  may  regulate  the  suffrage,  but  no 
state  may  deprive  a person  of  the  right  to  vote 
simply  because  he  is  a Negro  or  has  been  a slave. 

For  such  reasons  the  Negro  was  enfranchised. 
What  was  the  result?  No  language  has  been 
spared  to  describe  these  results  as  the  worst 
imaginable.  This  is  not  true.  There  were  bad 
results,  and  bad  results  arising  from  Negro 
suffrage;  but  those  results  were  not  so  bad  as 
usually  painted,  nor  was  Negro  suffrage  the  prime 
cause  of  many  of  them.  Let  us  not  forget  that 
the  white  South  believed  it  to  be  of  vital  in- 
terest to  its  welfare  that  the  experiment  of  Negro 
suffrage  should  fail  ignominiously  and  that  al- 
most to  a man  the  whites  were  willing  to  insure 
this  failure  either  by  active  force  or  passive  ac- 


214 


THE  NEGRO 


quiescence;  that  besides  this  there  were,  as  might 
be  expected,  men,  black  and  white,  Northern  and 
Southern,  only  too  eager  to  take  advantage  of 
such  a situation  for  feathering  their  own  nests. 
Much  evil  must  result  in  such  case;  but  to  charge 
the  evil  to  Negro  suffrage  is  unfair.  It  may  be 
charged  to  anger,  poverty,  venality,  and  igno- 
rance, but  the  anger  and  poverty  were  the  almost 
inevitable  aftermath  of  war;  the  venality  was 
much  greater  among  whites  than  Negroes  both 
North  and  South,  and  while  ignorance  was  the 
curse  of  Negroes,  the  fault  was  not  theirs  and 
they  took  the  initiative  to  correct  it. 

The  chief  charges  against  the  Negro  govern- 
ments are  extravagance,  theft,  and  incompetency 
of  officials.  There  is  no  serious  charge  that  these 
governments  threatened  civilization  or  the  foun- 
dations of  social  order.  The  charge  is  that  they 
threatened  property  and  that  they  were  inefficient. 
These  charges  are  in  part  undoubtedly  true,  but 
they  are  often  exaggerated.  The  South  had  been 
terribly  impoverished  and  saddled  with  new 
social  burdens.  In  other  words,  states  with 
smaller  resources  were  asked  not  only  to  do  a 
work  of  restoration,  but  a larger  social  work. 
The  property  holders  were  aghast.  They  not 
only  demurred,  but,  predicting  ruin  and  revolu- 
tion, they  appealed  to  secret  societies,  to  intimi- 
dation, force,  and  murder.  They  refused  to  believe 
that  these  novices  in  government  and  their 
friends  were  aught  but  scamps  and  fools.  Under 
the  circumstances  occurring  directly  after  the 


NEGRO  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  215 


war,  the  wisest  statesman  would  have  been 
compelled  to  resort  to  increased  taxation  and 
would  have,  in  turn,  been  execrated  as  extrava- 
gant, dishonest,  and  incompetent.  It  is  easy, 
therefore,  to  see  what  flaming  and  incredible 
stories  of  Reconstruction  governments  could 
gain  wide  currency  and  belief.  In  fact  the  ex- 
travagance, although  great,  was  not  universal, 
and  much  of  it  was  due  to  the  extravagant  spirit 
pervading  the  whole  country  in  a day  of  in- 
flated currency  and  speculation. 

That  the  Negroes,  led  by  the  astute  thieves, 
became  at  first  tools  and  received  some  small 
share  of  the  spoils  is  true.  But  two  considerations 
must  be  added:  much  of  the  legislation  which 
resulted  in  fraud  was  represented  to  the  Negroes 
as  good  legislation,  and  thus  their  votes  were 
secured  by  deliberate  misrepresentation.  Take, 
for  instance,  the  land  frauds  of  South  Carolina. 
A wise  Negro  leader  of  that  state,  advocating 
the  state  purchase  of  farm  lands,  said,  “One  of 
the  greatest  of  slavery  bulwarks  was  the  infernal 
plantation  system,  one  man  owning  his  thousand, 
another  his  twenty,  another  fifty  thousand  acres 
of  land.  This  is  the  only  way  by  which  we  will 
break  up  chat  system,  and  I maintain  that  our 
freedom  will  be  of  no  effect  if  we  allow  it  to 
continue.  What  is  the  main  cause  of  the  prosperity 
of  the  North?  It  is  because  every  man  has  his 
own  farm  and  is  free  and  independent.  Let  the 
lands  of  the  South  be  similarly  divided.”  1 
1 American  Historical  Review,  Vol.  XV,  No.  4. 


216 


THE  NEGRO 


From  such  arguments  the  Negroes  were  induced 
to  aid  a scheme  to  buy  land  and  distribute  it. 
Yet  a large  part  of  eight  hundred  thousand  dollars 
appropriated  was  wasted  and  went  to  the  white 
landholders’  pockets. 

The  most  inexcusable  cheating  of  the  Negroes 
took  place  through  the  Freedmen’s  Bank.  This 
bank  was  incorporated  by  Congress  in  1865  and 
had  in  its  list  of  incorporators  some  of  the  greatest 
names  in  America  including  Peter  Cooper,  William 
Cullen  Bryan  and  John  Jay.  Yet  the  bank  was 
allowed  to  fail  in  1874  owing  the  freedmen  their 
first  savings  of  over  three  millions  of  dollars. 
They  have  never  been  reimbursed. 

Many  Negroes  were  undoubtedly  venal,  but 
more  were  ignorant  and  deceived.  The  question 
is:  Did  they  show  any  signs  of  a disposition  to 
learn  to  better  things?  The  theory  of  democratic 
government  is  not  that  the  will  of  the  people  is 
always  right,  but  rather  that  normal  human 
beings  of  average  intelligence  will,  if  given  a chance, 
learn  the  right  and  best  course  by  bitter  experi- 
ence. This  is  precisely  what  the  Negro  voters 
showed  indubitable  signs  of  doing.  First  they 
strove  for  schools  to  abolish  ignorance,  and  second, 
a large  and  growing  number  of  them  revolted 
against  the  extravagance  and  stealing  that 
marred  the  beginning  of  Reconstruction,  and 
joined  with  the  best  elements  to  institute  re- 
form. The  greatest  stigma  on  the  white  South  is 
not  that  it  opposed  Negro  suffrage  and  resented 
theft  and  incompetence,  but  that,  when  it  saw 


NEGRO  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  217 


the  reform  movements  growing  and  even  in 
some  cases  triumphing,  and  a larger  and  larger 
number  of  black  voters  learning  to  vote  for  honesty 
and  ability,  it  still  preferred  a Reign  of  Terror 
to  a campaign  of  education  and  disfranchised 
Negroes  instead  of  punishing  rascals. 

No  one  has  expressed  this  more  convincingly 
than  a Negro  who  was  himself  a member  of  the 
Reconstruction  legislature  of  South  Carolina, 
and  who  spoke  at  the  convention  which  disfran- 
chised him  against  one  of  the  onslaughts  of  Till- 
' man.  “We  were  eight  years  in  power.  We  had 
built  school  houses,  established  charitable  in- 
stitutions, built  and  maintained  the  penitentiary 
system,  provided  for  the  education  of  the  deaf 
and  dumb,  rebuilt  the  jails  and  court  houses, 
rebuilt  the  bridges,  and  reestablished  the  ferries. 
In  short,  we  had  reconstructed  the  state  and 
placed  it  upon  the  road  to  prosperity,  and  at  the 
same  time,  by  our  acts  of  financial  reform,  trans- 
mitted to  the  Hampton  government  an  indebted- 
ness not  greater  by  more  than  two  and  a half 
million  dollars  than  was  the  bonded  debt  of  the 
state  in  1868,  before  the  Republican  Negroes 
and  their  white  allies  came  into  power.”  1 

So,  too,  in  Louisiana  in  1872,  and  in  Missis- 
sippi later,  the  better  element  of  the  Republicans 
, triumphed  at  the  polls  and,  joining  with  the 
Democrats,  instituted  reforms,  repudiated  the 
worst  extravagance,  and  started  toward  better 
things.  Unfortunately  there  was  one  thing 
1 Occasional  Papers,  American  Negro  Academy,  No.  6. 


218 


THE  NEGRO 


that  the  white  South  feared  more  than  Negro 
dishonesty,  ignorance,  and  incompetency,  and 
that  was  Negro  honesty,  knowledge,  and  effi- 
ciency. 

In  the  midst  of  all  these  difficulties  the  Negro 
governments  in  the  South  accomplished  much  of 
positive  good.  We  may  recognize  three  things 
which  Negro  rule  gave  to  the  South:  (1)  demo- 
cratic government,  (2)  free  public  schools,  (3)  new 
social  legislation. 

In  general,  the  words  of  Judge  Albion  W. 
Tourgee,  a white  “carpet  bagger,”  are  true  when 
he  says  of  the  Negro  governments,  “They  obeyed 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  and  annulled 
the  bonds  of  states,  counties,  and  cities  which 
had  been  issued  to  carry  on  the  War  of  Rebellion 
and  maintain  armies  in  the  field  against  the 
Union.  They  instituted  a public  school  system 
in  a realm  where  public  schools  had  been  unknown. 
They  opened  the  ballot  box  and  the  jury  box  to 
thousands  of  white  men  who  had  been  debarred 
from  them  by  a lack  of  earthly  possessions. 
They  introduced  home  rule  into  the  South. 
They  abolished  the  whipping  post,  the  branding 
iron,  the  stocks,  and  other  barbarous  forms  of 
punishment  which  had  up  to  that  time  pre- 
vailed. They  reduced  capital  felonies  from 
about  twenty  to  two  or  three.  In  an  age  of  ex- 
travagance they  were  extravagant  in  the  sums 
appropriated  for  public  works.  In  all  of  that 
time  no  man’s  rights  of  persons  were  invaded 
under  the  forms  of  law.  Every  Democrat’s 


NEGRO  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  219 


life,  home,  fireside,  and  business  were  safe.  No 
man  obstructed  any  white  man’s  way  to  the  bal- 
lot box,  interfered  with  his  freedom  of  speech, 
or  boycotted  him  on  account  of  his  political 
faith.”  1 

A thorough  study  of  the  legislation  accom- 
panying these  constitutions  and  its  changes  since 
shows  the  comparatively  small  amount  of  change 
in  law  and  government  which  the  overthrow  of 
Negro  rule  brought  about.  There  were  sharp  and 
often  hurtful  economies  introduced,  marking 
the  return  of  property  to  power;  there  was  a 
sweeping  change  of  officials,  but  the  main  body 
of  Reconstruction  legislation  stood.  The  Re- 
construction democracy  brought  forth  new 
leaders  and  definitely  overthrew  the  old  Southern 
aristocracy.  Among  these  new  men  were  Negroes 
of  worth  and  ability.  John  R.  Lynch,  when 
Speaker  of  the  Mississippi  House  of  Representa- 
tives, was  given  a public  testimonial  by  Repub- 
licans and  Democrats,  and  the  leading  white 
paper  said,  “His  bearing  in  office  had  been  so 
proper,  and  his  rulings  in  such  marked  con- 
trast to  the  partisan  conduct  of  the  ignoble  whites 
of  his  party  who  have  aspired  to  be  leaders  of 
the  blacks,  that  the  conservatives  cheerfully 
joined  in  the  testimonial.”  2 

Of  the  colored  treasurer  of  South  Carolina  the 
white  Governor  Chamberlain  said,  “I  have 
never  heard  one  word  or  seen  one  act  of  Mr. 

1 Occasional  Papers,  American  Negro  Academy,  No.  6. 

* Jackson  (Miss.)  Clarion,  April  24,  1873. 


220 


THE  NEGRO 


Cardoza’s  which  did  not  confirm  my  confidence 
in  his  personal  integrity  and  his  political  honor 
and  zeal  for  the  honest  administration  of  the 
state  government.  On  every  occasion,  and 
under  all  circumstances,  he  has  been  against 
fraud  and  robbery  and  in  favor  of  good  meas- 
ures and  good  men.”  1 

Jonathan  C.  Gibbs,  a colored  man  and  the  first 
state  superintendent  of  instruction  in  Florida, 
was  a graduate  of  Dartmouth.  He  established 
the  system  and  brought  it  to  success,  dying  in 
harness  in  1874.  Such  men  — and  there  were 
others  — ought  not  to  be  forgotten  or  confounded 
with  other  types  of  colored  and  white  Reconstruc- 
tion leaders. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  thirst  of  the  black 
man  for  knowledge,  a thirst  which  has  been  too 
persistent  and  durable  to  be  mere  curiosity  or 
whim,  gave  birth  to  the  public  school  system  of 
the  South.  It  was  the  question  upon  which  black 
voters  and  legislators  insisted  more  than  any- 
thing else,  and  while  it  is  possible  to  find  some 
vestiges  of  free  schools  in  some  of  the  Southern 
States  before  the  war,  yet  a universal,  well- 
established  system  dates  from  the  day  that  the 
black  man  got  political  power. 

Finally,  in  legislation  covering  property,  the 
wider  functions  of  the  state,  the  punishment  of 
crime  and  the  like,  it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  the 
laws  on  these  points  established  by  Reconstruc- 
tion legislatures  were  not  only  different  from  and 

1 Allen:  Governor  Chamberlain’ s Administration,  p.  82. 


NEGRO  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  221 


even  revolutionary  to  the  laws  in  the  older  South, 
but  they  were  so  wise  and  so  well  suited  to  the 
needs  of  the  new  South  that,  in  spite  of  a retro- 
gressive movement  following  the  overthrow  of  the 
1 Negro  governments,  the  mass  of  this  legislation, 
with  elaborations  and  development,  still  stands 
on  the  statute  books  of  the  South.1 

The  triumph  of  reaction  in  the  South  inaugu- 
rated a new  era  in  which  we  may  distinguish 
three  phases : the  renewed  attempt  to  reduce  the 
Negroes  to  serfdom,  the  rise  of  the  Negro  metayer, 
and  the  economic  disfranchisement  of  the  South- 
ern working  class. 

The  attempt  to  replace  individual  slavery 
had  been  frustrated  by  the  Freedmen’s  Bureau 
and  the  Fifteenth  Amendment.  The  disfranchise- 
ment of  1876  was  followed  by  the  widespread 
rise  of  “crime”  peonage.  Stringent  laws  on 
vagrancy,  guardianship,  and  labor  contracts 
were  enacted  and  large  discretion  given  judge 
and  jury  in  cases  of  petty  crime.  As  a result 
Negroes  were  systematically  arrested  on  the 
slightest  pretext  and  the  labor  of  convicts  leased 
to  private  parties.  This  “convict  lease  system” 
was  almost  universal  in  the  South  until  about 
1890,  when  its  outrageous  abuses  and  cruelties 
aroused  the  whole  country.  It  still  survives 
over  wide  areas,  and  is  not  only  responsible  for 
the  impression  that  the  Negro  is  a natural 

1 Reconstruction  Constitutions,  practically  unaltered, 
were  kept  in  Florida,  1868-85,  seventeen  years;  Virginia, 
1870-1902,  thirty-two  years;  South  Carolina,  1868-95, 
twenty-seven  years;  Mississippi,  1868-90,  twenty-two  years. 


222 


THE  NEGRO 


criminal,  but  also  for  the  inability  of  the  Southern 
courts  to  perform  their  normal  functions  after 
so  long  a prostitution  to  ends  far  removed  from 
justice. 

In  more  normal  economic  lines  the  employers 
began  with  the  labor  contract  system.  Before 
the  war  they  owned  labor,  land,  and  subsistence. 
After  the  war  they  still  held  the  land  and  sub- 
sistence. The  laborer  was  hired  and  the  sub- 
sistence “advanced”  to  him  while  the  crop  was 
growing.  The  fall  of  the  Freedmen’s  Bureau 
hindered  the  transmutation  of  this  system  into 
a modern  wage  system,  and  allowed  the  laborers 
to  be  cheated  by  high  interest  charges  on  the 
subsistence  advanced  and  actual  cheating  often 
in  book  accounts. 

The  black  laborers  became  deeply  dissatisfied 
under  this  system  and  began  to  migrate  from 
the  country  to  the  cities,  where  there  was  an 
increasing  demand  for  labor.  The  employing 
farmers  complained  bitterly  of  the  scarcity  of 
labor  and  of  Negro  “laziness,”  and  secured 
the  enactment  of  harsher  vagrancy  and  labor 
contract  laws,  and  statutes  against  the  “entice- 
ment” of  laborers.  So  severe  were  these  laws 
that  it  was  often  impossible  for  a laborer  to  stop 
work  without  committing  a felony.  Nevertheless 
competition  compelled  the  landholders  to  offer 
more  inducements  to  the  farm  hand.  The  result 
was  the  rise  of  the  black  share  tenant:  the 

laborer  securing  better  wages  saved  a little 
capital  and  began  to  hire  land  in  parcels  of  forty 


NEGRO  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  223 


to  eighty  acres,  furnishing  his  own  tools  and 
seed  and  practically  raising  his  own  subsistence. 
In  this  way  the  whole  face  of  the  labor  contract 
in  the  South  was,  in  the  decade  1880-90,  in 
process  of  change  from  a nominal  wage  contract 
to  a system  of  tenantry.  The  great  plantations 
were  apparently  broken  up  into  forty  and 
eighty  acre  farms  with  black  farmers.  To  many 
it  seemed  that  emancipation  was  accomplished, 
and  the  black  folk  were  especially  filled  with 
joy  and  hope. 

It  soon  was  evident,  however,  that  the  change 
was  only  partial.  The  landlord  still  held  the  land 
in  large  parcels.  He  rented  this  in  small  farms 
to  tenants,  but  retained  direct  control.  In 
theory  the  laborer  was  furnishing  capital,  but  in 
the  majority  of  cases  he  was  borrowing  at  least  a 
part  of  this  capital  from  some  merchant. 

The  retail  merchant  in  this  way  entered  on 
the  scene  as  middle  man  between  landlord  and 
laborer.  He  guaranteed  the  landowner  his  rent 
and  relieved  him  of  details  by  taking  over  the 
furnishing  of  supplies  to  the  laborer.  He  tempted 
the  laborer  by  a larger  stock  of  more  attractive 
goods,  made  a direct  contract  with  him,  and  took 
a mortgage  on  the  growing  crop.  Thus  he  soon 
became  the  middle  man  to  whom  the  profit  of  the 
transaction  largely  flowed,  and  he  began  to  get 
rich. 

If  the  new  system  benefited  the  merchant  and 
the  landlord,  it  also  brought  some  benefits  to 
the  black  laborers.  Numbers  of  these  were 


224 


THE  NEGRO 


still  held  in  peonage,  and  the  mass  were  laborers 
working  for  scant  board  and  clothes;  but  above 
these  began  to  rise  a large  number  of  independent 
tenants  and  farm  owners. 

In  1890,  therefore,  the  South  was  faced  by  this 
question:  Are  we  willing  to  allow  the  Negro  to 
advance  as  a free  worker,  peasant  farmer, 
metayer,  and  small  capitalist,  with  only  such 
handicaps  as  naturally  impede  the  poor  and 
ignorant,  or  is  it  necessary  to  erect  further  arti- 
ficial barriers  to  restrain  the  advance  of  the 
Negroes?  The  answer  was  clear  and  unmis- 
takable. The  advance  of  the  freedmen  had 
been  too  rapid  and  the  South  feared  it;  every 
effort  must  be  made  to  “keep  the  Negro  in  his 
place”  as  a servile  caste. 

To  this  end  the  South  strove  to  make  the  dis- 
franchisement of  the  Negroes  effective  and  final. 
Up  to  this  time  disfranchisement  was  illegal  and 
based  on  intimidation.  The  new  laws  passed 
between  1890  and  1910  sought  on  their  face  to 
base  the  right  to  vote  on  property  and  education 
in  such  a way  as  to  exclude  poor  and  illiterate 
Negroes  and  admit  all  whites.  In  fact  they  could 
be  administered  so  as  to  exclude  nearly  all  Ne- 
groes. To  this  was  added  a series  of  laws  designed 
publicly  to  humiliate  and  stigmatize  Negro  blood: 
as,  for  example,  separate  railway  cars;  separate 
seats  in  street  cars,  and  the  like;  these  things 
were  added  to  the  separation  in  schools  and 
churches,  and  the  denial  of  redress  to  seduced 
colored  women,  which  had  long  been  the  custom 


NEGRO  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  225 


in  the  South.  All  these  new  enactments  meant 
not  simply  separation,  but  subordination,  caste, 
humiliation,  and  flagrant  injustice. 

To  all  this  was  added  a series  of  labor  laws 
making  the  exploitation  of  Negro  labor  more 
secure.  All  this  legislation  had  to  be  accomplished 
in  the  face  of  the  labor  movement  throughout 
the  world,  and  particularly  in  the  South,  where 
it  was  beginning  to  enter  among  the  white  work- 
ers. This  was  accomplished  easily,  however,  by 
an  appeal  to  race  prejudice.  No  method  of  in- 
flaming the  darkest  passions  of  men  was  unused. 
The  lynching  mob  was  given  its  glut  of  blood  and 
egged  on  by  purposely  exaggerated  and  often 
wholly  invented  tales  of  crime  on  the  part  of 
perhaps  the  most  peaceful  and  sweet-tempered 
race  the  world  has  ever  known.  Under  the  flame 
of  this  outward  noise  went  the  more  subtle  and 
dangerous  work.  The  election  laws  passed  in  the 
states  where  three-fourths  of  the  Negroes  live, 
were  so  ingeniously  framed  that  a black  university 
graduate  could  be  prevented  from  voting  and  the 
most  ignorant  white  hoodlum  could  be  admitted 
to  the  polls.  Labor  laws  were  so  arranged  that 
imprisonment  for  debt  was  possible  and  leaving 
an  employer  could  be  made  a penitentiary  offense. 
Negro  schools  were  cut  off  with  small  appropria- 
tions or  wholly  neglected,  and  a determined  effort 
was  made  with  wide  success  to  see  that  no  Negro 
had  any  voice  either  in  the  making  or  the  admin- 
istration of  local,  state,  or  national  law. 

The  acquiescence  of  the  white  labor  vote  of 


226 


THE  NEGRO 


the  South  was  further  insured  by  throwing  white 
and  black  laborers,  so  far  as  possible,  into  rival 
competing  groups  and  making  each  feel  that  the 
one  was  the  cause  of  the  other’s  troubles.  The 
neutrality  of  the  white  people  of  the  North  was 
secured  through  their  fear  for  the  safety  of  large 
investments  in  the  South,  and  through  the  fatal- 
istic attitude  common  both  in  America  and  Europe 
toward  the  possibility  of  real  advance  on  the  part 
of  the  darker  nations. 

The  reaction  of  the  Negro  Americans  upon 
this  wholesale  and  open  attempt  to  reduce  them 
to  serfdom  has  been  interesting.  Naturally 
they  began  to  organize  and  protest  and  in  some 
cases  to  appeal  to  the  courts.  Then,  to  their 
astonishment,  there  arose  a colored  leader,  Mr. 
Booker  T.  Washington,  who  advised  them  to 
yield  to  disfranchisement  and  caste  and  wait  for 
greater  economic  strength  and  general  efficiency 
before  demanding  full  rights  as  American  citizens. 
The  white  South  naturally  agreed  with  Mr.  Wash- 
ington, and  the  white  North  thought  they  saw 
here  a chance  for  peace  in  the  racial  conflict  and 
safety  for  their  Southern  investments. 

For  a time  the  colored  people  hesitated.  They 
respected  Mr.  Washington  for  shrewdness  and 
recognized  the  wisdom  of  his  homely  insistence 
on  thrift  and  hard  work;  but  gradually  they 
came  to  see  more  and  more  clearly  that,  stripped 
of  political  power  and  emasculated  by  caste, 
they  could  never  gain  sufficient  economic  strength 
to  take  their  place  as  modern  men.  They  also 


NEGRO  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  227 


realized  that  any  lull  in  their  protests  would  be 
taken  advantage  of  by  Negro  haters  to  push  their 
caste  program.  They  began,  therefore,  with 
renewed  persistence  to  fight  for  their  fundamental 
rights  as  American  citizens.  The  struggle  tended 
at  first  to  bitter  personal  dissension  within  the 
group.  But  wiser  counsels  and  the  advice  of 
white  friends  eventually  prevailed  and  raised  it 
to  the  broad  level  of  a fight  for  the  fundamental 
principles  of  democracy.  The  launching  of  the 
“Niagara  Movement”  by  twenty-nine  daring 
colored  men  in  1905,  followed  by  the  formation 
of  the  National  Association  for  the  Advancement 
of  Colored  People  in  1910,  marked  an  epoch  in  the 
advance  of  the  Negro.  This  latter  organization, 
with  its  monthly  organ,  The  Crisis,  is  now  waging 
a nation-wide  fight  for  justice  to  Negroes.  Other 
organizations,  and  a number  of  strong  Negro 
weekly  papers  are  aiding  in  this  fight.  What 
has  been  the  net  result  of  this  struggle  of  half 
a century? 

In  1863  there  were  about  five  million  persons 
of  Negro  descent  in  the  United  States.  Of  these, 
four  million  and  more  were  just  being  released 
from  slavery.  These  slaves  could  be  bought  and 
sold,  could  move  from  place  to  place  only  with 
permission,  were  forbidden  to  learn  to  read  or 
write,  and  legally  could  never  hold  property  or 
marry.  Ninety  per  cent  were  totally  illiterate, 
and  only  one  adult  in  six  was  a nominal  Chris- 
tian. 

Fifty  years  later,  in  1913,  there  were  in  the 


228 


THE  NEGRO 


United  States  ten  and  a quarter  million  persons 
of  Negro  descent,  an  increase  of  one  hundred 
and  five  per  cent.  Legal  slavery  has  been  abol- 
ished leaving,  however,  vestiges  in  debt  slavery, 
peonage,  and  the  convict  lease  system.  The  mass 
of  the  freedmen  and  their  sons  have 

1.  Earned  a living  as  free  and  partially  free 
laborers. 

2.  Shared  the  responsibilities  of  government. 

3.  Developed  the  internal  organization  of 
their  race. 

4.  Aspired  to  spiritual  self-expression. 

The  Negro  was  freed  as  a penniless,  landless, 
naked,  ignorant  laborer.  There  were  a few  free 
Negroes  who  owned  property  in  the  South,  and 
a larger  number  who  owned  property  in  the 
North;  but  ninety -nine  per  cent  of  the  race  in 
the  South  were  penniless  field  hands  and  servants. 

To-day  there  are  two  and  a half  million  labor- 
ers, the  majority  of  whom  are  efficient  wage 
earners.  Above  these  are  more  than  a million 
servants  and  tenant  farmers;  skilled  and  semi- 
skilled workers  make  another  million  and  at  the 
top  of  the  economic  column  are  600,000  owners 
and  managers  of  farms  and  businesses,  cash 
tenants,  officials,  and  professional  men.  This 
makes  a total  of  5,192,535  colored  breadwinners 
in  1910. 

More  specifically  these  breadwinners  include 
218,972  farm  owners  and  319,346  cash  farm  ten- 
ants and  managers.  There  were  in  all  62,755 
miners,  288,141  in  the  building  and  hand  trades; 


NEGRO  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  229 


28,515  workers  in  clay,  glass,  and  stone;  41,739 
iron  and  steel  workers;  134,102  employees  on 
railways;  62,822  draymen,  cab  drivers,  and 
liverymen;  133,245  in  wholesale  and  retail 
trade;  32,170  in  the  public  service;  and  69,471 
in  professional  service,  including  29,750  teachers, 
17,495  clergymen,  and  4,546  physicians,  dentists, 
trained  nurses,  etc.  Finally,  we  must  not  forget 
2,175,000  Negro  homes,  with  their  housewives, 
and  1,620,000  children  in  school. 

Fifty  years  ago  the  overwhelming  mass  of  these 
people  were  not  only  penniless,  but  were  them- 
selves assessed  as  real  estate.  By  1875  the 
Negroes  probably  had  gotten  hold  of  something 
between  2,000,000  and  4,000,000  acres  of  land 
through  their  bounties  as  soldiers  and  the  low 
price  of  land  after  the  war.  By  1880  this  was 
increased  to  about  6,000,000  acres;  in  1890  to 
about  8,000,000  acres;  in  1900  to  over  12,000,000 
acres.  In  1910  this  land  had  increased  to  nearly 
20,000,000  acres,  a realm  as  large  as  Ireland. 

The  120,738  farms  owned  by  Negroes  in  1890 
increased  to  218,972  in  1910,  or  eighty-one  per 
cent.  The  value  of  these  farms  increased  from 
$179,796,639  in  1900  to  $440,992,439  in  1910; 
Negroes  owned  in  1910  about  500,000  homes  out 
of  a total  of  2,175,000.  Their  total  property  in 
1900  was  estimated  at  $300,000,000  by  the 
American  Economic  Association.  On  the  same 
basis  of  calculation  it  would  be  worth  to-day  not 
less  than  $800,000,000. 

Despite  the  disfranchisement  of  three-fourths 


230 


THE  NEGRO 


of  his  voting  population,  the  Negro  to-day  is  a 
recognized  part  of  the  American  government. 
He  holds  7,500  offices  in  the  executive  service  of 
the  nation,  besides  furnishing  four  regiments  in 
the  army  and  a large  number  of  sailors.  In  the 
state  and  municipal  service  he  holds  nearly  20,000 
other  offices,  and  he  furnishes  500,000  of  the  votes 
which  rule  the  Union. 

In  these  same  years  the  Negro  has  relearned 
the  lost  art  of  organization.  Slavery  was  the 
almost  absolute  denial  of  initiative  and  responsi- 
bility. To-day  Negroes  have  nearly  40,000 
churches,  with  edifices  worth  at  least  $75,000,000 
and  controlling  nearly  4,000,000  members.  They 
raise  themselves  $7,500,000  a year  for  these 
churches. 

There  are  200  private  schools  and  colleges 
managed  and  almost  entirely  supported  by 
Negroes,  and  these  and  other  public  and  private 
Negro  schools  have  received  in  40  years  $45,000,- 
000  of  Negro  money  in  taxes  and  donations. 
Five  millions  a year  are  raised  by  Negro  secret 
and  beneficial  societies  which  hold  at  least 
$6,000,000  in  real  estate.  Negroes  support  wholly 
or  in  part  over  100  old  folks’  homes  and  orphan- 
ages, 30  hospitals,  and  500  cemeteries.  Their  or- 
ganized commercial  life  is  extending  rapidly  and 
includes  over  22,000  small  retail  businesses  and 
40  banks. 

Above  and  beyond  this  material  growth  has 
gone  the  spiritual  uplift  of  a great  human  race. 
From  contempt  and  amusement  they  have  passed 


NEGRO  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  231 


to  the  pity,  perplexity,  and  fear  on  the  part  of 
their  neighbors,  while  within  their  own  souls 
they  have  arisen  from  apathy  and  timid  com- 
plaint to  open  protest  and  more  and  more  manly 
self-assertion.  Where  nine-tenths  of  them  could 
not  read  or  write  in  1860,  to-day  over  two-thirds 
can;  they  have  300  papers  and  periodicals,  and 
their  voice  and  expression  are  compelling  at- 
tention. 

Already  in  poetry,  literature,  music,  and  paint- 
ing the  work  of  Americans  of  Negro  descent  has 
gained  notable  recognition.  Instead  of  being 
led  and  defended  by  others,  as  in  the  past, 
American  Negroes  are  gaining  their  own  leaders, 
their  own  voices,  their  own  ideals.  Self-realiza- 
tion is  thus  coming  slowly  but  surely  to  another 
of  the  world’s  great  races,  and  they  are  to-day 
girding  themselves  to  fight  in  the  van  of  progress, 
not  simply  for  their  own  rights  as  men,  but  for 
the  ideals  of  the  greater  world  in  which  they 
live:  the  emancipation  of  women,  universal 

peace,  democratic  government,  the  socialization 
of  wealth,  and  human  brotherhood. 


CHAPTER  XII 


THE  NEGRO  PROBLEMS 

It  is  impossible  to  separate  the  population  of 
the  world  accurately  by  race,  since  that  is  no 
scientific  criterion  by  which  to  divide  races. 
If  we  divide  the  world,  however,  roughly  into 
African  Negroes  and  Negroids,  European  whites, 
and  Asiatic  and  American  brown  and  yellow 
peoples,  we  have  approximately  150,000,000 
Negroes,  500,000,000  whites,  and  900,000,000 
yellow  and  brown  peoples.  Of  the  150,000,000 
Negroes,  121,000,000  live  in  Africa,  27,000,000 1 
in  the  new  world,  and  2,000,000  in  Asia. 

What  is  to  be  the  future  relation  of  the  Negro 
race  to  the  rest  of  the  world?  The  visitor  from 
Altruria  might  see  here  no  peculiar  problem. 
He  would  expect  the  Negro  race  to  develop  along 
the  lines  of  other  human  races.  In  Africa  his 
economic  and  political  development  would  re- 
store and  eventually  outrun  the  ancient  glories 
of  Egypt,  Ethiopia,  and  Yoruba;  overseas  the 
West  Indies  would  become  a new  and  nobler 
Africa,  built  in  the  very  pathway  of  the  new 

1 Sir  Harry  Johnston  estimates  135,000,000  Negroes, 
of  whom  24,591,000  live  in  America.  See  Inter-Racial  Prob- 
lems, p.  335. 


232 


THE  NEGRO  PROBLEMS 


233 


highway  of  commerce  between  East  and  West  — 
the  real  sea  route  to  India;  while  in  the  United 
States  a large  part  of  its  citizenship  (showing  for 
perhaps  centuries  their  dark  descent,  but  never- 
theless equal  sharers  of  and  contributors  to  the 
civilization  of  the  West)  would  be  the  descend- 
ants of  the  wretched  victims  of  the  seventeenth, 
eighteenth,  and  nineteenth  century  slave  trade. 

This  natural  assumption  of  a stranger  finds, 
however,  lodging  in  the  minds  of  few  present- 
day  thinkers.  On  the  contrary,  such  an  outcome 
is  usually  dismissed  summarily.  Most  persons 
have  accepted  that  tacit  but  clear  modern  philos- 
ophy which  assigns  to  the  white  race  alone  the 
hegemony  of  the  world  and  assumes  that  other 
races,  and  particularly  the  Negro  race,  will 
either  be  content  to  serve  the  interests  of  the 
whites  or  die  out  before  their  all-conquering 
march.  This  philosophy  is  the  child  of  the 

African  slave  trade  and  of  the  expansion  of 
Europe  during  the  nineteenth  century. 

The  Negro  slave  trade  was  the  first  step  in 
modern  world  commerce,  followed  by  the 
modern  theory  of  colonial  expansion.  Slaves  as 
an  article  of  commerce  were  shipped  as  long  as 
the  traffic  paid.  When  the  Americas  had  enough 
black  laborers  for  their  immediate  demand, 
the  moral  action  of  the  eighteenth  century  had 
a chance  to  make  its  faint  voice  heard. 

The  moral  repugnance  was  powerfully  reen- 
forced by  the  revolt  of  the  slaves  in  the  West 
Indies  and  South  America,  and  by  the  fact 


234 


THE  NEGRO 


that  North  America  early  began  to  regard  itself 
as  the  seat  of  advanced  ideas  in  politics,  religion, 
and  humanity. 

Finally  European  capital  began  to  find  better 
investments  than  slave  shipping  and  flew  to 
them.  These  better  investments  were  the  fruit 
of  the  new  industrial  revolution  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  with  its  factory  system;  they 
were  also  in  part  the  result  of  the  cheapened  price 
of  gold  and  silver,  brought  about  by  slavery  and 
the  slave  trade  to  the  new  world.  Commodities 
other  than  gold,  and  commodities  capable  of 
manufacture  and  exploitation  in  Europe  out  of 
materials  furnishable  by  America,  became  en- 
hanced in  value;  the  bottom  fell  out  of  the  com- 
mercial slave  trade  and  its  suppression  became 
possible. 

The  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  saw  the 
beginning  of  the  rise  of  the  modern  working  class. 
By  means  of  political  power  the  laborers  slowly 
but  surely  began  to  demand  a larger  share  in 
the  profiting  industry.  In  the  United  States 
their  demand  bade  fair  to  be  halted  by  the  com- 
petition of  slave  labor.  The  labor  vote,  therefore, 
first  confined  slavery  to  limits  in  which  it  could 
not  live,  and  when  the  slave  power  sought  to 
exceed  these  territorial  limits,  it  was  suddenly 
and  unintentionally  abolished. 

As  the  emancipation  of  millions  of  dark  workers 
took  place  in  the  West  Indies,  North  and  South 
America,  and  parts  of  Africa  at  this  time,  it 
was  natural  to  assume  that  the  uplift  of  this 


THE  NEGRO  PROBLEMS 


235 


working  class  lay  along  the  same  paths  with 
that  of  European  and  American  whites.  This 
was  the  first  suggested  solution  of  the  Negro 
problem.  Consequently  these  Negroes  received 
partial  enfranchisement,  the  beginnings  of  edu- 
cation, and  some  of  the  elementary  rights  of 
wage  earners  and  property  holders,  while  the 
independence  of  Liberia  and  Hayti  was  recog- 
nized. However,  long  before  they  were  strong 
enough  to  assert  the  rights  thus  granted  or  to 
gather  intelligence  enough  for  proper  group 
leadership,  the  new  colonialism  of  the  later  nine- 
teenth and  twentieth  centuries  began  to  dawn. 
The  new  colonial  theory  transferred  the  reign 
of  commercial  privilege  and  extraordinary  profit 
from  the  exploitation  of  the  European  working 
class  to  the  exploitation  of  backward  races  under 
the  political  domination  of  Europe.  For  the 
purpose  of  carrying  out  this  idea  the  European 
and  white  American  working  class  was  prac- 
tically invited  to  share  in  this  new  exploitation, 
and  particularly  were  flattered  by  popular  ap- 
peals to  their  inherent  superiority  to  “Dagoes,” 
“Chinks,”  “Japs,”  and  “Niggers.” 

This  tendency  was  strengthened  by  the  fact 
that  the  new  colonial  expansion  centered  in 
Africa.  Thus  in  1875  something  less  than  one- 
tenth  of  Africa  was  under  nominal  European 
control,  but  the  Franco-Prussian  War  and  the 
exploration  of  the  Congo  led  to  new  and  fateful 
things.  Germany  desired  economic  expansion 
and,  being  shut  out  from  America  by  the  Monroe 


236 


THE  NEGRO 


Doctrine,  turned  to  Africa.  France,  humiliated 
in  war,  dreamed  of  an  African  empire  from  the 
Atlantic  to  the  Red  Sea.  Italy  became  ambitious 
for  Tripoli  and  Abyssinia.  Great  Britain  began 
to  take  new  interest  in  her  African  realm,  but 
found  herself  largely  checkmated  by  the  jealousy 
of  all  Europe.  Portugal  sought  to  make  good  her 
ancient  claim  to  the  larger  part  of  the  whole 
southern  peninsula.  It  was  Leopold  of  Belgium 
who  started  to  make  the  exploration  and  civiliza- 
tion of  Africa  an  international  movement.  This 
project  failed,  and  the  Congo  Free  State  became 
in  time  simply  a Belgian  colony.  While  the 
project  was  under  discussion,  the  international 
scramble  for  Africa  began.  As  a result  the  Berlin 
Conference  and  subsequent  wars  and  treaties 
gave  Great  Britain  control  of  2,101,411  square 
miles  of  African  territory,  in  addition  to  Egypt 
and  the  Egyptian  Sudan  with  1,600,000  square 
miles.  This  includes  South  Africa,  Bechuanaland 
and  Rhodesia,  East  Africa,  Uganda  and  Zanzibar, 
Nigeria,  and  British  West  Africa.  The  French 
hold  4,106,950  square  miles,  including  nearly 
all  North  Africa  (except  Tripoli)  west  of  the  Niger 
valley  and  Libyan  Desert,  and  touching  the  At- 
lantic at  four  points.  To  this  is  added  the  Island 
of  Madagascar.  The  Germans  have  910,150 
square  miles,  principally  in  Southeast  and  South- 
west Africa  and  the  Kamerun.  The  Portuguese 
retain  787,500  square  miles  in  Southeast  and 
Southwest  Africa.  The  Belgians  have  900,000 
square  miles,  while  Liberia  (43,000  square  miles) 


THE  NEGRO  PROBLEMS 


237 


and  Abyssinia  (350,000  square  miles)  are  inde- 
pendent. The  Italians  have  about  600,000  square 
miles  and  the  Spanish  less  than  100,000  square 
miles. 

This  partition  of  Africa  brought  revision  of  the 
ideas  of  Negro  uplift.  Why  was  it  necessary, 
the  European  investors  argued,  to  push  a conti- 
nent of  black  workers  along  the  paths  of  social 
uplift  by  education,  trades-unionism,  property 
holding,  and  the  electoral  franchise  when  the 
workers  desired  no  change,  and  the  rate  of  Euro- 
pean profit  would  suffer  ? 

There  quickly  arose  then  the  second  suggestion 
for  settling  the  Negro  problem.  It  called  for  the 
virtual  enslavement  of  natives  in  certain  indus- 
tries, as  rubber  and  ivory  collecting  in  the  Belgian 
Congo,  cocoa  raising  in  Portuguese  Angola,  and 
diamond  mining  in  South  Africa.  This  new 
slavery  or  “forced”  labor  was  stoutly  defended 
as  a necessary  foundation  for  implanting  modern 
industry  in  a barbarous  land;  but  its  likeness  to 
slavery  was  too  clear  and  it  has  been  modified, 
but  not  wholly  abolished. 

, The  third  attempted  solution  of  the  Negro 
sought  the  result  of  the  second  by  less  direct 
methods.  Negroes  in  Africa,  the  WTest  Indies, 
and  America  were  to  be  forced  to  work  by  land 
monopoly,  taxation,  and  little  or  no  education. 
In  this  way  a docile  industrial  class  working  for 
low  wages,  and  not  intelligent  enough  to  unite  in 
labor  unions,  was  to  be  developed.  The  peonage 
systems  in  parts  of  the  United  States  and  the  labor 


238 


THE  NEGRO 


systems  of  many  of  the  African  colonies  of  Great 
Britain  and  Germany  illustrate  this  phase  of 
solution.1  It  is  also  illustrated  in  many  of  the 
West  Indian  islands  where  we  have  a predominant 
Negro  population,  and  this  population  freed  from 
slavery  and  partially  enfranchised.  Land  and 
capital,  however,  have  for  the  most  part  been 
so  managed  amd  monopolized  that  the  black 
peasantry  have  been  reduced  to  straits  to  earn 
a living  in  one  of  the  richest  parts  of  the  world. 
The  problem  is  now  going  to  be  intensified  when 
the  world’s  commerce  begins  to  sweep  through 
the  Panama  Canal. 

All  these  solutions  and  methods,  however, 
run  directly  counter  to  modern  philanthropy, 
and  have  to  be  carried  on  with  a certain  conceal- 
ment and  half-hypocrisy  which  is  not  only 
distasteful  in  itself,  but  always  liable  to  be  dis- 
covered and  exposed  by  some  liberal  or  religious 
movement  of  the  masses  of  men  and  suddenly 
overthrown.  These  solutions  are,  therefore,  grad- 
ually merging  into  a fourth  solution,  which  is 
to-day  very  popular.  This  solution  says : Negroes 
differ  from  whites  in  their  inherent  genius  and 
stage  of  development.  Their  development  must 
not,  therefore,  be  sought  along  European  lines, 

1 The  South  African  natives,  in  an  appeal  to  the  English 
Parliament,  show  in  an  astonishing  way  the  confiscation  of 
their  land  by  the  English.  They  say  that  in  the  Union  of 
South  Africa  1,250,000  whites  own  264,000,000  acres  of  land, 
while  the  4,500,000  natives  have  only  21,000,000  acres.  On 
top  of  this  the  Union  Parliament  has  passed  a law  making 
even  the  future  purchase  of  land  by  Negroes  illegal  save  in 
restricted  areas! 


THE  NEGRO  PROBLEMS 


239 


but  along  their  own  native  lines.  Consequently 
the  effort  is  made  to-day  in  British  Nigeria,  in 
the  French  Congo  and  Sudan,  in  Uganda  and 
Rhodesia  to  leave  so  far  as  possible  the  outward 
structure  of  native  life  intact;  the  king  or  chief 
reigns,  the  popular  assemblies  meet  and  act, 
the  native  courts  adjudicate,  and  native  social 
and  family  life  and  religion  prevail.  All  this, 
however,  is  subject  to  the  veto  and  command  of 
a European  magistracy  supported  by  a native 
army  with  European  officers.  The  advantage  of 
this  method  is  that  on  its  face  it  carries  no  clue 
to  its  real  working.  Indeed  it  can  always  point 
to  certain  undoubted  advantages:  the  abolition 
of  the  slave  trade,  the  suppression  of  war  and 
feud,  the  encouragement  of  peaceful  industry. 
On  the  other  hand,  back  of  practically  all  these 
experiments  stands  the  economic  motive  — the 
determination  to  use  the  organization,  the  land, 
and  the  people,  not  for  their  own  benefit,  but  for 
the  benefit  of  white  Europe.  For  this  reason 
education  is  seldom  encouraged,  modern  religious 
ideas  are  carefully  limited,  sound  political  de- 
velopment is  sternly  frowned  upon,  and  industry 
is  degraded  and  changed  to  the  demands  of 
European  markets.  The  most  ruthless  class  of 
white  mercantile  exploiters  is  allowed  large  liberty, 
if  not  a free  hand,  and  protected  by  a concerted 
attempt  to  deify  white  men  as  such  in  the  eyes 
of  the  native  and  in  their  own  imagination.1 

1 The  traveler  Glave  writes  in  the  Century  Magazine 
(LIII,  913) : “Formerly  (in  the  Congo  Free  State]  an  ordinary 


240 


THE  NEGRO 


White  missionary  societies  are  spending  per- 
haps as  much  as  five  million  dollars  a year  in 
Africa  and  accomplishing  much  good,  but  at  the 
same  time  white  merchants  are  sending  at  least 
twenty  million  dollars’  worth  of  European  liquor 
into  Airica  each  year,  and  the  debauchery  of  the 
almost  unrestricted  rum  traffic  goes  far  to  neu- 
tralize missionary  effort. 

Under  this  last  mentioned  solution  of  the  Negro 
problems  we  may  put  the  attempts  at  the  segrega- 
tion of  Negroes  and  mulattoes  in  the  United  States 
and  to  some  extent  in  the  West  Indies.  Ostensi- 
bly this  is  “separation”  of  the  races  in  society, 
civil  rights,  etc.  In  practice  it  is  the  subordina- 
tion of  colored  people  of  all  grades  under  white 
tutelage,  and  their  separation  as  far  as  possible 
from  contact  with  civilization  in  dwelling  place, 
in  education,  and  in  public  life. 

On  the  other  hand  the  economic  significance 
of  the  Negro  to-day  is  tremendous.  Black 
Africa  to-day  exports  annually  nearly  two  hun- 
dred million  dollars’  worth  of  goods,  and  its 
economic  development  has  scarcely  begun.  The 
black  West  Indies  export  nearly  one  hundred  mil- 
lion dollars’  worth  of  goods;  to  this  must  be  added 
the  labor  value  of  Negroes  in  South  Africa,  Egypt, 
the  West  Indies,  North,  Central,  and  South 
America,  where  the  result  is  blended  in  the  com- 
mon output  of  many  races.  The  economic  foun- 

white  man  was  merely  called  ‘bwana’  or  ‘Mzunga’;  now 
the  merest  insect  of  a pale  face  earns  the  title  of  ‘bwana 
Mkubwa’  [big  masterl.” 


THE  NEGRO  PROBLEMS 


241 


dation  of  the  Negro  problem  can  easily  be  seen 
to  be  a matter  of  many  hundreds  of  millions 
to-day,  and  ready  to  rise  to  the  billions  to- 
morrow. 

Such  figures  and  facts  give  some  slight  idea  of 
the  economic  meaning  of  the  Negro  to-day  as  a 
worker  and  industrial  factor.  “Tropical  Africa 
and  its  peoples  are  being  brought  more  irrevo- 
cably every  year  into  the  vortex  of  the  economic 
influences  that  sway  the  western  world.”  1 

What  do  Negroes  themselves  think  of  these 
their  problems  and  the  attitude  of  the  world 
toward  them?  First  and  most  significant,  they 
are  thinking.  There  is  as  yet  no  great  single 
centralizing  of  thought  or  unification  of  opinion, 
but  there  are  centers  which  are  growing  larger 
and  larger  and  touching  edges.  The  most 
significant  centers  of  this  new  thinking  are,  per- 
haps naturally,  outside  Africa  and  in  America: 
in  the  United  States  and  in  the  West  Indies; 
this  is  followed  by  South  Africa  and  West  Africa 
and  then,  more  vaguely,  by  South  America,  with 
faint  beginnings  in  East  Central  Africa,  Nigeria, 
and  the  Sudan. 

The  Pan-African  movement  when  it  comes  will 
not,  however,  be  merely  a narrow  racial  propa- 
ganda. Already  the  more  far-seeing  Negroes 
sense  the  coming  unities:  a unity  of  the  working 
classes  everywhere,  a unity  of  the  colored  races, 
a new  unity  of  men.  The  proposed  economic 
solution  of  the  Negro  problem  in  Africa  and 
1 E.  D.  Morel,  in  the  Nineteenth  Century. 


242 


THE  NEGRO 


America  has  turned  the  thoughts  of  Negroes 
toward  a realization  of  the  fact  that  the  modern 
white  laborer  of  Europe  and  America  has  the 
key  to  the  serfdom  of  black  folk,  in  his  support  of 
militarism  and  colonial  expansion.  He  is  begin- 
ning to  say  to  these  workingmen  that,  so  long  as 
black  laborers  are  slaves,  white  laborers  cannot 
be  free.  Already  there  are  signs  in  South  Africa 
and  the  United  States  of  the  beginning  of  under- 
standing between  the  two  classes. 

In  a conscious  sense  of  unity  among  colored 
races  there  is  to-day  only  a growing  interest. 
There  is  slowly  arising  not  only  a curiously 
strong  brotherhood  of  Negro  blood  throughout 
the  world,  but  the  common  cause  of  the  darker 
races  against  the  intolerable  assumptions  and 
insults  of  Europeans  has  already  found  expres- 
sion. Most  men  in  this  world  are  colored.  A 
belief  in  humanity  means  a belief  in  colored  men. 
The  future  world  will,  in  all  reasonable  prob- 
ability, be  what  colored  men  make  it.  In  order 
for  this  colored  world  to  come  into  its  heritage, 
must  the  earth  again  be  drenched  in  the  blood  of 
fighting,  snarling  human  beasts,  or  will  Reason 
and  Good  Will  prevail?  That  such  may  be  true, 
the  character  of  the  Negro  race  is  the  best  and 
greatest  hope;  for  in  its  normal  condition  it  is 
at  once  the  strongest  and  gentlest  of  the  races  of 
men:  “Semper  novi  quid  ex  Africa!” 


Distribution  of  Negro  Blood,  Ancient  and  Modern 


SUGGESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER 
READING 


There  is  no  general  history  of  the  Negro  race.  Perhaps 
Sir  Harry  H.  Johnston,  in  his  various  works  on  Africa,  has 
come  as  near  covering  the  subject  as  any  one  writer,  but  his 
valuable  books  have  puzzling  inconsistencies  and  inaccuracies. 
Keane’s  Africa  is  a helpful  compendium,  despite  the  fact 
that  whenever  Keane  discovers  intelligence  in  an  African  he 
immediately  discovers  that  its  possessor  is  no  “Negro.”  The 
articles  in  the  latest  edition  of  the  Encylopcedia  Britannica  are 
of  some  value,  except  the  ridiculous  article  on  the  “Negro” 
by  T.  A.  Joyce.  Frobenius’  newly  published  Voice  of  Africa 
is  broad-minded  and  informing,  and  Brown’s  Story  of  Africa 
and  its  Explorers  brings  together  much  material  in  readable 
form.  The  compendiums  by  Keltie  and  White,  and  John- 
ston’s Opening  up  of  Africa  are  the  best  among  the  shorter 
treatises. 

None  of  these  authors  write  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
Negro  as  a man,  or  with  anything  but  incidental  acknowledg- 
ment of  the  existence  or  value  of  his  history.  We  may,  how- 
ever, set  down  certain  books  under  the  various  subjects  which 
the  chapters  have  treated.  These  books  will  consist  of 
(1)  standard  works  for  wider  reading  and  (2)  special  works 
on  which  the  author  has  relied  for  his  statements  or  which 
amplify  his  point  of  view.  The  latter  are  starred. 

THE  PHYSIOGRAPHY  OF  AFRICA 

A.  S.  White:  The  Development  of  Africa,  2d  ed.,  1892. 
Stanford’s  Compendium  of  Geography:  Africa,  by  A.  H. 

Keane,  2d  ed.,  1904-7. 

E.  Reclus:  Universal  Geography,  Vols.  X-XITI. 

244 


SUGGESTIONS  FOR  READING  245 


RACIAL  DIFFERENCES  AND  THE  ORIGIN  AND  CHARACTERISTICS 
OF  NEGROES 

J.  Deniker:  The  Races  of  Man,  etc.,  New  York,  1904. 

*J.  Finot:  Race  Prejudice  (tr.  by  Wade-Evans),  New  York, 
1907. 

*W.  Z.  Ripley:  The  Races  of  Europe,  etc.,  New  York,  1899. 
‘Jacques  Loeb:  in  The  Crisis,  Vol.  VIII,  p.  84,  Vol.  IX,  p.  92. 
*Papers  on  Inter-Racial  Problems  Communicated  to  the  First 
Universal  Races  Congress,  etc.  (ed.  by  G.  Spiller), 
1911. 

*G.  Sergi:  The  Mediterranean  Race,  etc.,  London,  1901. 
‘Franz  Boas:  The  Mind  of  Primitive  Man,  New  York,  1911. 
C.  B.  Davenport:  Heredity  of  Skin  Color  in  Negro-White 
Crosses,  1913. 


early  movements  of  the  negro  race 

‘Sir  Harry  H.  Johnston:  The  Opening  up  of  Africa  (Home 
University  Library). 

A History  of  the  Colonization  of  Africa  by  Alien  Races, 

Cambridge,  1905. 

‘G.  W.  Stowe:  The  Native  Races  of  South  Africa  (ed.  by  G.  M. 
Theal),  London,  1910. 

(Consult  also  Johnston’s  other  works  on  Africa,  and  his 
article  in  Vol.  XLIII  of  the  Journal  of  the  Royal  Anthropolog- 
ical Institute  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland;  also  Inter-Racial 
Problems,  and  Deniker,  noted  above.) 


NEGRO  IN  ETHIOPIA  AND  EGYPT 

(The  works  of  Breasted  and  Petrie,  Maspero,  Budge  and 
Newberry  and  Garstang  are  the  standard  books  on  Egypt. 
They  mention  the  Negro,  but  incidentally  and  often  slight- 
ingly-) 

*A.  F.  Chamberlain:  “The  Contribution  of  the  Negro  to 
Human  Civilization”  ( Journal  of  Race  Development, 
Vol.  I,  April,  1911). 


246  SUGGESTIONS  FOR  READING 


T.  E.  S.  Scholes:  Glimpses  of  the  Ages,  etc.,  London,  1905. 

W.  H.  Ferris:  The  African  Abroad,  etc.,  2 vols.,  New  Haven, 
1913. 

E.  A.  W.  Budge:  The  Egyptian  Sudan,  2 vols.,  1907. 

* Archeological  Survey  of  Nubia. 

*A.  Thompson  and  D.  Randal  McIver:  The  Ancient  Races 
of  the  Thebaid,  1905. 

ABYSSINIA 

Job  Ludolphus:  A New  History  of  Ethiopia  (tr.  by  Gent), 
London,  1682. 

W.  S.  Harris:  Highlands  of  /. Ethiopia , 3 vols.,  London,  1844. 

R.  S.  Whiteway:  The  Portuguese  Expedition  to  Abyssinia  . . . 
as  narrated  by  Castanhosa,  etc.,  1902. 

THE  NIGER  RIVER  AND  ISLAM 

*F.  L.  Shaw  (Lady  Lugard)  : A Tropical  Dependency,  etc., 
London,  1906. 

(The  reader  may  dismiss  as  worthless  Lady  Lugard’s 

definition  of  “Negro.”  Otherwise  her  book  is  excellent.) 

*Es-Sa’di,  Abderrahman  Ben  Abdallah,  etc.,  translated 
into  French  by  O.  Houdas,  Paris,  1900. 

*F.  DdBois:  Timbuktu  the  Mysterious  (tr.  by  White),  1896. 

*W.  D.  Cooley:  The  Negroland  of  the  Arabs,  etc.,  1841. 

*H.  Barth:  Travels  and  Discoveries  in  North  and  Central 
Africa,  etc.,  5 vols.,  1857-58. 

*Ibn  Batuta : Travels,  etc.  (tr.  by  Lee),  1829. 

*Leo  Africanus:  The  History  and  Description  of  Africa,  etc. 
(tr.  by  Pory,  ed.  by  R.  Brown),  3 vols.,  1896. 

*E.  W.  Blyden:  Christianity,  Islam,  and  the  Negro  Race. 

*Leo  Frobenius:  The  Voice  of  Africa  (tr.  by  Blind),  2 vols., 
1913. 

Mungo  Park:  Travels  in  the  Interior  Districts  of  Africa,  1799. 

THE  NEGRO  ON  THE  GUINEA  COAST 

*Leo  Frobenius  (as  above). 

Sir  Harry  H.  Johnston:  Liberia,  2 vols..  New  York,  1906. 

H.  H.  Foote:  Africa  and  the  American  Flag,  New  York,  1859. 


SUGGESTIONS  FOR  READING  247 


T.  H.  T.  McPherson:  A History  of  Liberia,  Baltimore,  Johns 
Hopkins  Studies. 

T.  J.  Alldridge:  A Transformed  Colony  (Sierra  Leone),  Lon- 
don, 1910. 

E.  D.  Morel:  Affairs  of  West  Africa,  1902. 

H.  L.  Roth:  Great  Benin  and  Its  Customs,  1903. 

*F.  Starr:  Liberia,  1913. 

W.  Jay:  An  Inquiry,  etc.,  1835. 

*A.  B.  Ellis:  The  T shi-speaking  Peoples  of  the  Gold  Coast, 
1887. 

The  Ewe-speaking  Peoples  of  the  Slave  Coast,  1890. 

The  Yoruba- speaking  Peoples  of  the  Slave  Coast,  1894. 

C.  H.  Read  and  O.  M.  Dalton:  Antiquities  from  the  City  of 
Benin,  etc.,  1899. 

*M.  H.  Kingsley:  West  African  Studies,  2d  ed.,  1904. 

*G.  W.  Ellis:  Negro  Culture  in  West  Africa  (Vai-speaking 
peoples),  1914. 

THE  CONGO  VALLEY 

*G.  Schweinfurth:  The  Heart  of  Africa,  Vol.  II,  1873. 

*H.  M.  Stanley:  Through  the  Dark  Continent,  2 vols.,  1878. 

In  Darkest  Africa,  2 vols.,  1890. 

The  Congo,  etc.,  2 vols.,  London,  1885. 

H.  von  Wissman:  My  Second  Journey  through  Equatorial 
Africa,  1891. 

*H.  R.  Fox-Bourne:  Civilization  in  Congoland,  1903. 

Sir  Harry  H.  Johnston:  George  Grenfell  and  the  Congo,  2 
vols.,  London,  1908. 

*E.  D.  Morel:  Red  Rubber,  London,  1906. 

the  negro  in  the  region  of  the  great  lakes 

*Sir  Harry  H.  Johnston:  The  Uganda  Protectorate,  2d  ed., 
2 vols.,  1904. 

British  Central  Africa,  1897. 

The  Nile  Quest,  1903. 

*D.  Randal  McIver:  Mediaeval  Rhodesia,  1906. 

*The  Last  Journals  of  David  Livingstone  in  Central  Africa  (ed. 
by  H.  Waller),  1874. 


248  SUGGESTIONS  FOR  READING 


J.  Dos  Santos:  Ethiopia  Oriental  (Theal’s  Records  of  South 
Africa,  Vol.  VII). 

C.  Peters:  “Ophir  and  Punt  in  South  Africa”  ( African  So- 

ciety Journal,  Vol.  I). 

De  Barros:  De  Asia. 

R.  Burton:  Lake  Regions  of  Central  Africa,  I860. 

R.  P.  Ashe:  Chronicles  of  Uganda,  1894. 

(See  also  Stanley’s  works,  as  above.) 

THE  NEGRO  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA 

*G.  M.  Theal:  History  and  Ethnography  of  South  Africa  of 
the  Zambesi  to  1795,  3 vols.,  1907-10. 

History  of  South  Africa  since  September,  1795, 5 vols.,  1908. 

Records  of  South  Eastern  Africa,  9 vols.,  1898-1903. 

*J.  Bryce:  Impressions  of  South  Africa,  1897. 

D.  Livingstone:  Missionary  Travels  in  South  Africa,  1857. 
*South  African  Native  Affairs  Commission,  1903-5,  Reports, 

etc.,  5 vols..  Cape  Town,  1904-5. 

G.  Lagden:  The  Basutos,  London,  1909. 

J.  Stewart:  Lovedale,  1884. 

(See  also  Stowe,  as  above.) 

ON  NEGRO  CIVILIZATION 

J.  Dowd:  The  Negro  Races,  1907,  1914. 

*H.  Gregoire:  An  Inquiry  concerning  the  Intellectual  and 
Moral  Faculties  and  Literature  of  Negroes,  etc.  (tr.  by 
Warden),  Brooklyn,  1810. 

C.  BOcher:  Industrial  Evolution  (tr.  by  Wickett),  New  York, 
1904. 

*Franz  Boas:  “The  Real  Race  Problem”  {The  Crisis,  De- 
cember, 1910). 

Commencement  Address  (Atlanta  University  Leaflet, 

No.  19). 

*F.  Ratzel:  The  History  of  Mankind  (tr.  by  Butler),  3 vols., 
1904. 

C.  Hayford:  Gold  Coast  Institutions,  1903. 

A.  B.  Camphor:  Missionary  Sketches  and  Folk  Lore  from 
Africa,  1909. 

R.  H.  Nassau:  Fetishism  in  West  Africa,  1907. 


SUGGESTIONS  FOR  READING  249 


♦William  Schneider:  Die  Culturfdhigkeit  des  Negers,  Frank- 
fort, 1885. 

*G.  Schweinfurth  : Arles  Africanae,  etc.,  1875. 

Duke  of  Mecklenburg:  From  the  Congo  to  the  Niger  and 
the  Nile  (English  tr.),  Philadelphia,  1914. 

D.  Crawford:  Thinlcing  Black. 

R.  N.  Cust:  Sketch  of  Modern  Languages  of  Africa,  2 vols., 
1883. 

H.  Chatelain:  The  Folk  Lore  of  Angola. 

D.  Kidd:  The  Essential  Kafir,  1904. 

Savage  Childhood,  1906. 

Kafir  Socialism  and  the  Dawn  of  Individualism,  1908. 

M.  H.  Tongue:  Bushman  Paintings,  Oxford,  1909. 

(See  also  the  works  of  A.  B.  Ellis,  Miss  Kingsley,  Sir  Harry 

H.  Johnston,  Frobenius,  Stowe,  Theal,  and  Ibn  Batuta;  and 

particularly  Chamberlain’s  article  in  the  Journal  of  Race 

Development.) 

THE  SLAVE  TRADE 

T.  K.  Ingram:  History  of  Slavery  and  Serfdom,  London,  1895. 
(Same  article  revised  in  Encyclopeedia  Britannica,  11th 
edition.) 

John  R.  Spears:  The  American  Slave  Trade,  1900. 

*T.  F.  Buxton:  The  African  Slave  Trade  and  Its  Remedy,  etc., 
1896. 

T.  Clarkson:  History  ...  of  the  Abolition  of  the  African  Slave 
Trade,  etc.*  2 vols.,  1808. 

R.  Drake:  Revelations  of  a Slave  Smuggler,  New  York,  1860. 

* Report  of  the  Lords  of  the  Committee  of  Council,  etc.,  London, 
1789. 

*B.  Mayer:  Captain  Canot  or  Twenty  Years  of  an  African 
Slaver,  etc.,  1854. 

W.  E.  B.  DuBois:  The  suppression  of  the  African  Slave-Trade 
to  the  U.  S.  A.,  1896. 

(See  also  Bryan  Edwards’  West  Indies.) 

THE  WEST  INDIES  AND  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Fletcher  and  Kidder:  Brazil  and  the  Brazilians,  1879. 

•Bryan  Edwards:  History  ...  of  the  British  West  Indies,  5 
editions,  Vols.  II-V,  1793-1819. 


250  SUGGESTIONS  FOR  READING 


♦Sir  Harry  H.  Johnston:  The  Negro  in  the  New  World,  1910. 

T.  G.  Steward:  The  Haitian  Revolution,  1791-1804,  1914. 

J.  N.  Leger:  Haiti,  etc.,  1907. 

J.  Bryce:  South  America,  etc.,  1912. 

*J.  B.  de  Lacerda:  “The  Metis  or  Half-Breeds  of  Brazil’’ 
( Inter-Racial  Problems,  etc.). 

A.  K.  Fiske:  History  of  the  West  Indies,  1899. 

THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

*Walker  s Ap-peal,  1829. 

*G.  W.  Williams:  History  of  the  Negro  Race  in  America,  1619- 
1880,  1882. 

B.  G.  Brawley:  A Short  History  of  the  American  Negro,  1913. 

B.  T.  Washington:  Up  from  Slavery,  1901. 

The  Story  of  the  Negro,  2 vols.,  1909. 

*The  Autobiography  of  an  Ex-Colored.  Man,  1912. 

*G.  E.  Stroud:  Sketch  of  the  Laws  relating  to  Slavery,  etc., 
1827. 

The  Human  Way:  Addresses  on  Race  Problems  at  the  Southern 
Sociological  Congress,  Atlanta,  1913  (ed.  by  J.  E. 
McCulloch). 

W.  J.  Simmons:  Men  of  Mark,  1887. 

*J.  R.  Giddings:  The  Exiles  of  Florida,  1858. 

W.  E.  Nell:  The  Colored  Patriots  of  the  American  Revolution, 
etc.,  1855. 

C.  W.  Chesnutt:  The  Marrow  of  Tradition,  1901. 

P.  L.  Dunbar:  Lyrics  of  Lowly  Life,  1896. 

*Life  and  Times  of  Frederick  Douglass,  revised  edition,  1892. 

*H.  E.  Kreihbel:  Afro-American  Folk  Songs,  etc.,  1914. 

T.  P.  Fenner  and  others:  Cabin  and  Plantation  Songs,  3d  ed., 
1901. 

W.  F.  Allen  and  others:  Slave  Songs  of  the  United  States,  1867. 

W.  E.  B.  DuBois:  “The  Negro  Race  in  the  United  States  of 
America”  ( Inter-Racial  Problems,  etc.). 

“The  Economics  of  Negro  Emancipation”  ( Sociological 

Review,  October,  1911). 

John  Brown. 

The  Philadelphia  Negro,  1899. 


SUGGESTIONS  FOR  READING  251 

W.  E.  B.  DuBois:  “Reconstruction  and  its  Benefits”  (Ameri- 
can Historical  Review,  Vol.  XV,  No.  4). 

editor.  The  Crisis:  A Record  of  the  Darker  Races, 

monthly,  1910. 

editor,  The  Atlanta  University  Studies: 

No.  1.  Mortality  Among  Negroes  in  Cities,  1896. 

No.  2.  Social  and  Physical  Conditions  of  Negroes 
in  Cities,  1897. 

No.  3.  Some  Efforts  of  Negroes  for  Social  Better- 
ment, 1898. 

No.  4.  The  Negro  in  Business,  1899. 

No.  5.  The  College  Bred  Negro,  1900. 

No.  6.  The  Negro  Common  School,  1901. 

No.  7.  The  Negro  Artisan,  1902. 

No.  8.  The  Negro  Church,  1903. 

No.  9.  Notes  on  Negro  Crime,  1904. 

No.  10.  A Select  Bibliography  of  the  Negro  Ameri- 
can, 1905. 

No.  11.  Health  and  Physique  of  the  Negro  American, 
1906. 

No.  12.  Economic  Co-operation  among  Negro  Ameri- 
cans, 1907. 

No.  13.  The  Negro  American  Family,  1908. 

No.  14.  Efforts  for  Social  Betterment  among  Negro 
Americans,  1909. 

No.  15.  The  College  Bred  Negro  American,  1910. 

No.  16.  The  Common  School  and  the  Negro  Ameri- 
can, 1911. 

No.  17.  The  Negro  American  Artisan,  1912. 

No.  18.  Morals  and  Manners  among  Negro  Ameri- 
cans, 1913. 

*G.  W.  Cable:  The  Silent  South,  etc.,  1885. 

*J.  R.  Lynch:  The  Facts  of  Reconstruction,  1913. 

*J.  T.  Wilson:  The  Black  Phalanx,  1897. 

William  Goodell:  Slavery  and  Anti-Slavery,  1852. 

G.  S.  Merriam:  The  Negro  and  the  Nation,  1906. 

A.  B.  Hart:  The  Southern  South,  1910. 

*G.  Livermore:  An  Historical  Research  respecting  the  Opinions 
of  the  Founders  of  the  Republic  on  Negroes,  etc.,  1862. 


252  SUGGESTIONS  FOR  READING 


Haktshorn  and  Penniman:  An  Era  of  Progress  and  Promise, 
1910  (profusely  illustrated). 

* James  Brewster:  Sketches  of  Southern  Mystery,  Treason, 

and  Murder. 

Willcox  and  DuBois:  Negroes  in  the  United  States  (United 
States  Census  of  1900,  Bulletin  No.  8). 

THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  NEGRO  RACE 

*J.  S.  Keltie:  The  Partition  of  Africa,  2d  ed.,  1895. 

B.  T.  Washington:  The  Future  of  the  Negro. 

W.  E.  B.  DuBois:  “The  Future  of  the  Negro  Race  in  Amer1 
ica”  ( East  and  West,  Vol.  II,  No.  5). 

Soids  of  Black  Folk,  1913. 

Quest  of  the  Silver  Fleece. 

Alexander  Crummell:  The  Future  of  Africa,  2d  ed.,  1862. 
*Casely  Hayford:  Ethiopia  Unhound,  1911. 

Kelly  Miller:  Out  of  the  House  of  Bondage,  1914. 

Race  Adjustment,  1908. 

* J.  Royce:  Race  Questions,  etc.,  1908. 

*R.  S.  Baker:  Following  the  Color  Line,  1908. 

N.  S.  Shaler:  The  Neighbor. 

E.  D.  Morel:  “Free  Labor  in  Tropical  Africa”  ( Nineteenth 
Century  and  After,  1914). 

(See  also  Finot,  Boas,  Inter-Racial  Problems,  and  White’s 
Development  of  Africa .) 


INDEX 


Abolition,  162,  193,  199,  200,  201. 
202 

Abyssinia,  42  ff. 

Africa,  civilization  in,  27,  103 

, exploration  of,  17,  18 

, partition  of,  235 

, physiography  of,  10 

, South,  91 

Amendments,  war,  213 
America,  Central,  147,  160,  162, 182 

, Latin,  160 

, South,  147,  160,  182 

An  tar,  12,  50 

Anti-Slavery  Society,  201 

Arabs  in  Africa,  17,  42,  44,  49,  50 

Aryan  Race,  21 

Ashanti,  67,  154 

Assyrians,  22 

Asiento,  152,  184 

Askia,  Mohammed,  54 

Babylonian  Culture,  22 
Bantus,  25,  80  ff. 

Barbadoes,  178 
Benin,  28,  48,  63  ff.,  153 
Boers,  94 

Bolivar,  163,  175,  176 
Bornu,  48,  56 
Boyer,  176,  177 
Brazil,  163-166 
Brown,  John,  202 
Bushmen,  22,  91  ff.,  109 
Byzantium,  48,  49 

Canaan,  Curse  of,  21 
Carthage,  25,  26,  63 
Christianity,  42,  128,  129,  187 
Church,  Negro,  188,  193 
Civil  War,  202 
Climate,  9,  18 
Codes,  blade,  209 
Color,  cause  of,  15 
Congo,  71 

Congo  Free  State,  76 
Cotton,  195,  198,  202 

Dahomey,  67,  154 
Darfur,  44 


Disfranchisement,  224,  225 
Dominica,  179 
Dorantes,  Stephen,  161 
Douglass,  Frederick,  20*,  203 
Dutch,  166,  167 

Egypt,  25,  27,  SO  ff. 
Emancipation,  203 
Ethiopia,  9,  36  ff.,  48 

Fetish,  124 

Folk-lore,  132 

Freedmen’s  Bank,  216 

Freedmen’s  Bureau,  206 

Fromentius,  42 

Fugitive  Slaves,  196,  202,  203 

Fula,  59 

Fung,  44 

Garrison,  William  Lloyd,  199 
Ghana,  48,  49,  51 
Gricquas,  95 
Guiana,  167 
Guinea,  62 

Greeks  in  Africa,  17,  25,  41,  42 

Ham,  story  of,  21 
Hamites,  16 
Hausa,  48,  56 
Hayti,  162,  168 
Hottentot,  79,  80,  93,  109 

Insurrections,  196 

Iron,  110-116 

Islam,  17,  44,  47,  49,  128 

Jamaica,  178,  179 
John,  Prester,  12,  61 

Kaffir,  84,  95 
Kanem,  57 
Kitwara,  88 
Kush,  9,  37,  40 

Languages,  130 
Las  Casas,  148 

Leopold  II  of  Belgium,  76,  77,  78 
Liberia,  69 


254 


INDEX 


Literature,  131 
Luba-Lunda  Peoples,  78,  75 

Mahdi,  45 
Mandingoes,  49 
Manufactures,  109-114 
Maroons,  179 
Martinique,  178 
Mansa  Musa,  52 
Melle,  48,  52 
Menelik,  46 
Meroe,  38,  40 
Mexico,  161 

Miscegenation,  14,  16,  20,  22,  23, 
31,  32,  56,  94,  140,  141,  164,  183, 
184,  185 

Mohammedanism,  see  Islam 
Monomotapa,  81 
Moors,  57 

Mossi,  53,  55,  62,  153 
Mulattoes,  14,  23,  24,  31,  S3,  94, 
101,  140,  164,  185 

Napoleon,  171 
Nefertari,  35 

Negro  blood  in  Asia,  22,  32,  103 

blood  in  Europe,  22,  32 

brain,  105 

, definition  of,  12,  138,  139. 

, hair  of,  15 

, inferiority  of  the,  12,  104,  139, 

140 

, problems,  232 

.soldiers,  26,  162,  192,  194, 

203,  204 
types,  24 

Negroes,  art  among,  64,  82,  111, 
132,  231 

, industry  of,  106 

, in  Spain,  145 

, physique  of,  104 

, primitive,  20,  22 

, occupations  of,  in  United 

States,  228 
Nepata,  38,  40 
Niger,  47 
Nubia,  42,  43 
Nupe,  48,  49,  85,  153 

Obi,  189 
Ophir,  80,  87 


Peonage,  221,  225 
Phoenicians,  17,  25,  63 
Portuguese,  17,  18,  44,  71,  75 
Property,  123 
Punt,  9,  36,  79,  80,  91 
Pygmies,  22,  91 

Quadeloupe,  178 

Reconstruction,  205 
Religion,  124 

Rome  in  Africa,  17,  25,  42 

Schools,  199,  218 
Semites,  10 

Sheba,  Queen  of,  42,  87 
Sierra  Leone,  68 
Slave  Codes,  189,  195,  196 
Slave  Trade,  27,  29,  143  ff. 

Slave  Traders,  Dutch,  150 

, English,  151 

, Portuguese,  146,  147,  150 

Songhay,  48,  53 
Sonni  Ali,  53 
Sphinx  at  Gizeh,  34 
Stanley,  H.  M.,  76,  77 
State  Building,  28 
Sudan,  36,  57 

Suffrage,  Negro,  192,  208,  213 

Terence,  11 
Timbuktu,  53,  54 
Toussaint  L’Ouverture,  170  ff. 
Tuaregs,  54 

Uganda,  88 

Underground  Railroad,  199,  200 
United  States,  183 

Voodoo,  189 

Washington,  B.  T.,  226 
Wheatley,  Phyllis,  194 
Women,  123 

Yoruba,  48,  62,  68,  153 

Zulus,  84,  95 
Zymbabwe,  79  ff. 


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25.  THE  CIVIL  WAR  (1854-1865).  By  Frederick  L. 
Paxson,  Professor  of  American  History,  University  of 
Wisconsin. 

39.  RECONSTRUCTION  AND  UNION  (1865-1912). 
By  Paul  Leland  Haworth.  A History  of  the  United 
States  in  our  own  times. 

47.  THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD  (1607-1766).  By  Charles 
McLean  Andrews,  Professor  of  American  History,  Yale. 

67.  FROM  JEFFERSON  TO  LINCOLN  (1815-1860). 
By  William  MacDonald,  Professor  of  History,  Brown 
University.  The  author  makes  the  history  of  this  period 
circulate  about  constitutional  ideas  and  slavery  sentiment. 

82.  THE  WARS  BETWEEN  ENGLAND  AND  AMER- 
ICA (1763-1815).  By  Theodore  C.  Smith,  Professor  of 
American  History,  Williams  Collefre.  A history  of  the 
period,  with  especial  emphasis  on  The  Revolution  and  The 
War  of  1812. 


GENERAL  HISTORY  AND  GEOGRAPHY 


3.  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION.  By  Hilaire  Belloc. 

4.  A SHORT  HISTORY  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE.  By 
G.  H.  Perris,  author  of  “Russia  in  Revolution,”  etc. 

7.  MODERN  GEOGRAPHY.  By  Dr.  Marion  New- 

bigin.  Shows  the  relation  of  physical  features  to  living 
things  and  to  some  of  the  chief  institutions  of  civilization. 

8.  POLAR  EXPLORATION.  By  Dr.  W.  S.  Bruce, 

leader  of  the  “Scotia”  expedition.  Emphasizes  the  results 
of  the  expedition. 

13.  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE.  By  H.  W.  C.  Davis,  Fellow 
at  Balliol  College,  Oxford,  author  of  “Charlemagne,”  etc. 

18.  THE  OPENING  UP  OF  AFRICA.  By  Sir  H.  H. 
Johnston. 

19.  THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA.  By  H.  A.  Giles, 

Professor  of  Chinese,  Cambridge. 

20.  HISTORY  OF  OUR  TIME  (1885-1911).  By  C.  P. 
Gooch. 

22.  THE  PAPACY  AND  MODERN  TIMES.  By  Rev. 
William  Barry,  D.D.,  author  of  “The  Papal  Monarchy,” 
etc.  The  story  of  the  rise  and  fall  of  the  Temporal  Power. 

26.  THE  DAWN  OF  HISTORY.  By  J.  L.  Myers, 

Professor  of  Ancient  History,  Oxford. 

30.  ROME.  By  W.  Wards  Fowler,  author  of  "Social  Life 
at  Rome,”  etc. 

33.  THE  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.  By  A.  F.  Pollard, 

Professor  of  English  History,  University  of  London. 

34.  CANADA.  By  A.  G.  Bradley. 

36.  PEOPLES  AND  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA.  By  Sir 
T.  W.  Holderness.  “The  best  small  treatise  dealing  with 
the  range  of  subjects  fairly  indicated  by  the  title.” — 
The  Dial. 

51.  MASTER  MARINERS.  By  John  R.  Spears,  author 

of  “The  History  of  Our  Navy,”  etc.  A history  of  sea 
craft  adventure  from  the  earliest  time*. 


57-  NAPOLEON.  By  H.  A.  L.  Fisher,  Vice-Chancellor  of 
Sheffield  University.  Author  of  “The  Republican  Tradi- 
tion in  Europe.” 

72.  GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY.  By  Charles  Tower. 

76.  THE  OCEAN.  A GENERAL  ACCOUNT  OF  THE 
SCIENCE  OF  THE  SEA.  By  Sir  John  Murray, 
K.C.B.,  Naturalist  H.  M.  S.  “Challenger,”  1872-1876, 
joint  author  of  “The  Depths  of  the  Ocean,”  etc. 

78.  LATIN  AMERICA.  By  William  R.  Shepherd,  Pro- 
fessor of  History,  Columbia.  With  maps.  The  historical, 
artistic  and  commercial  development  of  the  Central  South 
American  republics. 

84.  THE  GROWTH  OF  EUROPE.  By  Granville  Cole, 

Professor  of  Geology,  Royal  College  of  Science,  Ireland. 
A study  of  the  geology  and  physical  geography  in  connec- 
tion with  the  political  geography. 

86.  EXPLORATION  OF  THE  ALPS.  By  Arnold 
Lunn,  M.A. 

92.  THE  ANCIENT  EAST.  By  D.  G.  Hogarth,  M.A., 
F.B.A.,  F.S.A.  Connects  with  Prof.  Myers’s  “Dawn 
of  History”  (No.  26)  at  about  1000  B.  C.  and  reviews  the 
history  of  Assyria,  Babylon,  Cilicia,  Persia  and  Macedonia. 

94.  THE  NAVY  AND  SEA  POWER.  By  David  Han- 
nay,  author  of  “Short  History  of  the  Royal  Navy,”  etc. 
A brief  history  of  the  navies,  sea  power,  and  ship  growth 
of  all  nations,  including  the  rise  and  decline  of  America  on 
the  sea,  and  explaining  the  present  British  supremacy. 

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Balliol  College.  The  geographical,  linguistic,  historical, 
artistic  and  literary  associations. 

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The  history  of  Poland  with  special  emphasis  upon  the 
Polish  question  of  the  present  day. 

102.  SERBIA.  By  L.  F.  Waring,  with  preface  by  J.  M. 
Jovanovitch,  Serbian  Minister  to  Great  Britain.  The 
main  outlines  of  Serbian  history,  with  special  emphasis  on 
the  immediate  causes  of  the  war  and  the  questions  in  the 
after-the-war  settlement. 

104.  OUR  FORERUNNERS.  By  M.  C.  Burkitt,  M.A., 
F.S.A.  A comprehensive  study  of  the  beginnings  of 
mankind  and  the  culture  of  the  prehistoric  era. 


105.  COMMERCIAL  GEOGRAPHY.  By  Marion  I.  New- 

bigin.  Fundamental  conceptions  of  commodities,  transport 
and  market. 

108.  WALES.  By  W.  Watkin  Davies,  M.A.,  F.R.  Hist. 
S.,  Barrister-at-Law,  author  of  “How  to  Read  History,” 
etc. 

no.  EGYPT.  By  E.  A.  Wallis  Budge,  M.A.,  Litt.D. 

114.  THE  BYZANTINE  EMPIRE.  By  Norman  H. 
Baynes.  The  period  from  the  recognition  of  Christianity 
by  the  state  to  the  date  when  the  Latin  sovereigns  sup- 
planted the  Byzantines. 

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STUARTS.  By  Keith  Felling,  M.A.  The  period  of 
Transition  from  1485  to  1688. 

iai.  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND  (1688-1815).  By  E.  M. 
WRONG,  M.A.  A continuation  and  development  of  Mr. 
Feiling’s  “England  Under  the  Tudors  and  the  Stuarts.” 

127.  THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  JAPAN.  By  J.  Ingram 

Bryan,  Extension  Lecturer  for  the  University  of  Cam- 
bridge in  Japanese  History  and  Civilization.  A brief 
sketch  of  the  origins  and  developments  of  Japanese  civi- 
lization. 

128.  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND  (1815-1918).  By  Pro- 
fessor J.  R.  M.  Butler.  Gives  a vivid  impression  of  the 
chief  ways  in  which  English  life  was  transformed  in  the 
century  between  Waterloo  and  the  Armistice  and  of  the 
forces  which  caused  the  transformation. 

129.  THE  BRITISH  EMPIRE.  By  Basil  Williams, 

Professor  of  History  at  Edinburgh  University.  Sketches 
the  growth  of  the  British  Empire  from  the  times  of  the 
early  adventurers  to  the  present  day. 


LITERATURE  AND  ART 

2.  SHAKESPEARE.  By  John  Masefield.  “One  of  the 
very  few  indispensable  adjuncts  to  a Shakespearian 
Library.” — Boston  T ranscript. 

27.  MODERN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  By  G.  H. 
Mair.  From  Wyatt  and  Surrey  to  Synge  and  Yeats. 
“One  of  the  best  of  this  great  series.” — Chicago  Evening 
Post. 


3i.  LANDMARKS  IN  FRENCH  LITERATURE.  By 
G.  L.  Strachey,  Scholar  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge. 
“It  is  difficult  to  imagine  how  a better  account  of  French 
Literature  could  be  given  in  250  pages.” — London  Times. 

38.  ARCHITECTURE.  By  Prof.  W.  R.  Lethaby.  An 
introduction  to  the  history  and  theory  of  the  art  of 
building. 

40.  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE.  By  L.  P.  Smith.  A 

concise  history  of  its  origin  and  development. 

45.  MEDIEVAL  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  By  W.  P. 
Ker,  Professor  of  English  Literature,  University  College, 
London.  “One  of  the  soundest  scholars.  His  style  is  ef- 
fective, simple,  yet  never  dry.” — The  Athenaeum. 

48.  GREAT  WRITERS  OF  AMERICA.  By  W.  P. 
Trent  and  John  Erskine,  Columbia  University. 

58.  THE  NEWSPAPER.  By  G.  Binney  Dibblee.  The 
first  full  account  from  the  inside  of  newspaper  organiza- 
tion as  it  exists  today. 

59.  DR.  JOHNSON  AND  HIS  CIRCLE.  By  John 
Bailey.  Johnson’s  life,  character,  works  and  friendships 
are  surveyed;  and  there  is  a notable  vindication  of  the 
“Genius  of  Boswell.” 

61.  THE  VICTORIAN  AGE  IN  LITERATURE.  By 

G.  K.  Chesterton. 

62.  PAINTERS  AND  PAINTING.  By  Sir  Frederick 
Wedmore.  With  16  half-tone  illustrations. 

64.  THE  LITERATURE  OF  GERMANY.  By  J.  G. 
Robertson. 

66.  WRITING  ENGLISH  PROSE.  By  William  T. 
Brewster,  Professor  of  English,  Columbia  University. 
“Should  be  put  into  the  hands  of  every  man  who  is  be- 
ginning to  write  and  of  every  teacher  of  English  who  has 
brains  enough  to  understand  sense.” — New  York  Sun. 

70.  ANCIENT  ART  AND  RITUAL.  By  Jane  E.  Harri- 
son, LL.D.,  D.Litt.  “One  of  the  100  most  important 
books  of  1913.” — New  York  Times  Review. 

73.  EURIPIDES  AND  HIS  AGE.  By  Gilbert  Murray, 

Regius  Professor  of  Greek,  Oxford. 

75.  SHELLEY,  GODWIN  AND  THEIR  CIRCLE.  By 

H.  N.  Brailsford.  The  influence  of  the  French  Revolu- 
tion on  England. 


81.  CHAUCER  AND  HIS  TIMES.  By  Grace  E.  Hadow, 
Lecturer  Lady  Margaret  Hall,  Oxford;  Late  Reader, 
Bryn  Mawr. 

83.  WILLIAM  MORRIS:  HIS  WORK  AND  IN- 
FLUENCE. By  A.  Clutton  Brock,  author  of  “Shelley: 
The  Man  and  the  Poet.”  William  Morris  believed  that 
the  artist  should  toil  for  love  of  his  work  rather  than  the 
gain  of  his  employer,  and  so  he  turned  from  making  works 
of  art  to  remaking  society. 

87.  THE  RENAISSANCE.  By  Edith  Sichel,  author  of 
“Catherine  de  Medici,”  “Men  and  Women  of  the  French 
Renaissance.” 

89.  ELIZABETHAN  LITERATURE.  By  J.  M.  Robert- 
son, M.P.,  author  of  “Montaigne  and  Shakespeare,” 
“Modern  Humanists.” 

93.  AN  OUTLINE  OF  RUSSIAN  LITERATURE.  By 

Maurice  Baring,  author  of  “The  Russian  People,”  etc. 
Tolstoi,  Tourgenieff,  Dostoieffsky,  Pushkin  (the  father  of 
Russian  Literature),  Saltykov  (the  satirist),  Leskov,  and 
many  other  authors. 

97.  MILTON.  By  John  Bailey. 

101.  DANTE.  By  Jeflerson  B.  Fletcher,  Columbia  Uni- 
versity. An  interpretation  of  Dante  and  his  teaching 
from  his  writings. 

106.  PATRIOTISM  IN  LITERATURE.  By  John  Drink- 
water. 

109.  MUSIC.  By  Sir  W.  H.  Hadow. 

1 17.  DRAMA.  By  Ashley  Dukes.  The  nature  and  varieties 
of  drama  and  the  factors  that  make  up  the  theatre,  from 
dramatist  to  audience. 

132.  THE  LITERATURE  OF  JAPAN.  By  J.  Ingram 

Bryan,  Extension  Lecturer  for  the  University  of  Cam- 
bridge in  Japanese  History  and  Civilization. 

134.  AN  ANTHOLOGY  OF  ENGLISH  POETRY: 
Wyatt  to  Dryden.  By  Mrs.  F.  E.  A.  Campbell. 


NATURAL  SCIENCE 


9.  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  PLANTS.  By  Dr.  D.  H. 
Scott,  President  of  the  Linnean  Society  of  London.  The 
story  of  the  development  of  flowering  plants,  from  the 
earliest  zoological  times,  unlocked  from  technical  language. 

12.  THE  ANIMAL  WORLD.  By  Prof.  F.  W.  Gamble. 

14.  EVOLUTION.  By  Prof.  J.  Arthur  Thomson  and 
Prof.  Patrick  Geddes.  Explains  to  the  layman  what  the 
title  means  to  the  scientific  world. 

15.  INTRODUCTION  TO  MATHEMATICS.  By  A.  N. 
Whitehead,  author  of  “Universal  Algebra.” 

17.  CRIME  AND  INSANITY.  By  Dr.  C.  Mercier,  author 
of  “Crime  and  Criminals,”  etc. 

ax.  AN  INTRODUCTION  TO  SCIENCE.  By  Prof.  J. 
Arthur  Thomson,  Science  Editor  of  the  Home  University 
Library.  For  those  unacquainted  with  the  scientific 
volumes  in  the  series  this  should  prove  an  excellent  intro- 
duction. 

23.  ASTRONOMY.  By  A.  R.  Hinks,  Chief  Assistant  at 
the  Cambridge  Observatory.  “Decidedly  original  in  sub- 
stance, and  the  most  readable  and  informative  little  book 
on  modern  astronomy  we  have  seen  for  a long  time.” — 
Nature. 

24.  PSYCHICAL  RESEARCH.  By  Prof.  W.  F.  Barrett, 

formerly  President  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research. 

37.  ANTHROPOLOGY.  By  R.  R.  Marett,  Reader  in 
Social  Anthropology,  Oxford.  Seeks  to  plot  out  and  sum 
up  the  general  series  of  changes,  bodily  and  mental,  under- 
gone by  man  in  the  course  of  history.  “Excellent.  So 
enthusiastic,  so  clear  and  witty,  and  so  well  adapted  to  the 
general  reader.” — American  Library  Association  Booklist. 

41.  PSYCHpLOGY,  THE  STUDY  OF  BEHAVIOUR. 
By  William  McDougall,  of  Oxford.  A well-digested 
summary  of  the  essentials  of  the  science  put  in  excellent 
literary  form  by  a leading  authority. 

42.  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  PHYSIOLOGY.  By  Prof. 
J.  G.  McKendrick.  A compact  statement  by  the  Emeritus 
Professor  at  Glasgow,  for  uninstructed  readers. 


43.  MATTER  AND  ENERGY.  By  F.  Soddy,  Lecturer  in 
Physical  Chemistry  and  Radioactivity,  University  of  Glas- 
gow. “Brilliant.  Can  hardly  be  surpassed.  Sure  to  attract 
attention.” — New  York  Sun. 


53.  ELECTRICITY.  By  Gisbert  Kapp,  Professor  of 
Electrical  Engineering,  University  of  Birmingham. 

54.  THE  MAKING  OF  THE  EARTH.  By  J.  W. 

Gregory,  Professor  of  Geology,  Glasgow  University.  38 
maps  and  figures.  Describes  the  origin  of  the  earth,  the 
formation  and  changes  of  its  surface  and  structure,  its 
geological  history,  the  first  appearance  of  life,  and  its 
influence  upon  the  globe. 

56.  MAN:  A HISTORY  OF  THE  HUMAN  BODY.  By 
A.  Keith,  M.D.,  Hunterian  Professor,  Royal  College  of 
Surgeons,  London.  Shows  how  the  human  body  developed. 


63.  THE  ORIGIN  AND  NATURE  OF  LIFE.  By  Ben- 
jamin M.  Moore,  Professor  of  Bio-Chemistry,  Liverpool. 


68.  DISEASE  AND  ITS  CAUSES.  By  W.  T.  Council- 
man, M.D.,  LL.D.,  Professor  of  Pathology,  Harvard 
University. 


71.  PLANT  LIFE.  By  J.  B.  Farmer,  D.Sc.,  F.R.S.,  Pro- 
fessor of  Botany  in  the  Imperial  College  of  Science,  Lon- 
don. This  very  fully  illustrated  volume  contains  an  ac- 
count of  the  salient  features  of  plant  form  and  function. 

74.  NERVES.  By  David  Fraser  Harris,  M.  D.,  Professor 
of  Physiology,  Dalhousie  University,  Halifax.  Explains 
in  nontechnical  language  the  place  and  powers  of  the 
nervous  system. 

85.  SEX.  By  J.  Arthur  Thomson  and  Patrick  Geddes, 
joint  authors  of  “The  Evolution  of  Sex.” 

90.  CHEMISTRY.  By  Raphael  Meldola,  F.R.S.,  Pro- 
fessor of  Chemistry,  Finsbury  Technical  College.  Pre- 
sents the  way  in  which  the  science  has  developed  and  the 
stage  it  has  reached. 

107.  AN  INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  STUDY  OF 
HEREDITY.  By  E.  W.  MacBride,  Professor  of  Zo- 
ology in  the  Imperial  College  of  Science  and  Technology, 
London. 

hi.  BIOLOGY.  By  J.  Arthur  Thomson  and  Patrick 
Geddes. 


1 12.  BACTERIOLOGY.  By  Prof.  Carl  H.  Browning. 

115.  MICROSCOPY.  By  Robert  M.  Neill,  Aberdeen  Uni- 
versity. Microscopic  technique  subordinated  to  results  of 
investigation  and  their  value  to  man. 

116.  EUGENICS.  By  A.  M.  Carr-Saunders.  Biological 
problems,  together  with  the  facts  and  theories  of  heredity. 

119.  GAS  AND  GASES.  By  R.  M.  Caven,  D.Sc.,  F.I.C., 

Royal  Technical  College,  Glasgow.  The  chemical  and 
physical  nature  of  gases,  both  in  their  scientific  and  his- 
torical aspects. 

122.  BIRDS,  AN  INTRODUCTION  TO  ORNITHOL- 
OGY. By  A.  L.  Thompson,  O.B.E.,  D.Sc.  A general 
account  of  the  characteristics,  mainly  of  habit  and  behavior 
of  birds. 

124.  SUNSHINE  AND  HEALTH.  By  Ronald  Campbell 
Macfie,  M.B.C.M.,  LL.D.  Light  and  its  relation  to  man 
treated  scientifically. 

125.  INSECTS.  By  Frank  Balfour-Browne,  Professor  of 
Entomology  in  the  Imperial  College  of  Science  and  Tech- 
nology, London. 

126.  TREES.  By  MacGregor  Skene,  D.Sc.,  F.L.S.  Senior 

Lecturer  on  Botany,  Bristol  University.  A concise 
study  of  the  classification,  history,  structure,  architecture, 
growth,  enemies,  care  and  protection  of  trees.  Forestry 
and  economics  are  also  discussed. 

138.  THE  LIFE  OF  THE  CELL.  By  David  Lands- 
borough  Thomson,  Lecturer  in  Biochemistry,  McGill 
University. 


PHILOSOPHY  AND  RELIGION 

35.  THE  PROBLEMS  OF  PHILOSOPHY.  By  Ber- 
trand Russell,  Lecturer  and  Late  Fellow  Trinity  College, 
Cambridge. 

44.  BUDDHISM.  By  Mrs.  Rhys  Davids,  Lecturer  on  In- 
dian Philosophy,  Manchester. 

46.  ENGLISH  SECTS:  A HISTORY  OF  NONCON- 
FORMITY. By  W.  B.  Selbie,  Principal  of  Manchester 
College,  Oxford. 


50.  THE  MAKING  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT.  By 
B.  W.  Bacon,  Professor  of  New  Testament  Criticism, 
Yale.  An  authoritative  summary  of  the  results  of  modern 
critical  research  with  regard  to  the  origins  of  the  New 
Testament. 

52.  ETHICS.  By  G.  E.  Moore,  Lecturer  in  Moral  Science, 
Cambridge.  Discusses  what  is  right  and  what  is  wrong, 
and  the  whys  and  wherefores. 

55.  MISSIONS:  THEIR  RISE  AND  DEVELOPMENT. 
By  Mrs.  Mandell  Creighton,  author  of  “History  of  Eng- 
land.’’ The  author  seeks  to  prove  that  missions  have  done 
more  to  civilize  the  world  than  any  other  human  agency. 

60.  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION.  By  Prof.  J.  Estlin 

Carpenter.  “One  of  the  few  authorities  on  this  subject 
compares  all  the  religions  to  see  what  they  have  to  offer 
on  the  great  themes  of  religion.” — Christian  Work  and 
Evangelist. 

65.  THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 
By  George  F.  Moore,  Professor  of  the  History  of  Re- 
ligion, Harvard  University.  “A  popular  work  of  the 
highest  order.  Will  be  profitable  to  anybody  who  cares 
enough  about  Bible  study  to  read  a serious  book  on  the 
subject.” — American  Journal  of  Theology. 

69.  A HISTORY  OF  FREEDOM  OF  THOUGHT.  By 
John  B.  Bury,  M.A.,  LL.D.,  Regius  Professor  of  Modern 
History  in  Cambridge  University.  Summarizes  the  history 
of  the  long  struggle  between  authority  and  reason  and  of 
the  emergence  of  the  principle  that  coercion  of  opinion 
is  a mistake. 

88.  RELIGIOUS  DEVELOPMENT  BETWEEN  OLD 
AND  NEW  TESTAMENTS.  By  R.  H.  Charles, 

Canon  of  Westminster.  Shows  how  religious  and  ethical 
thought  between  180  B.  C.  and  100  A.  D.  grew  naturally 
into  that  of  the  New  Testament. 

96.  A HISTORY  OF  PHILOSOPHY.  By  Clement  C. 

J.  Webb,  Oxford. 

130.  JESUS  OF  NAZARETH.  By  Charles  Gore,  for- 
merly Bishop  of  Oxford. 


SOCIAL  SCIENCE 


x.  PARLIAMENT.  ITS  HISTORY,  CONSTITU- 
TION, AND  PRACTICE.  By  Sir  Courtenay  P. 
Ilbert,  Clerk  of  the  House  of  Commons. 

5.  THE  STOCK  EXCHANGE.  By  F.  V/.  Hirst,  Editor 

of  the  London  Economist.  Reveals  to  the  nonfinancial 
mind  the  facts  about  investment,  speculation,  and  the  other 
terms  which  the  title  suggests. 

6.  IRISH  NATIONALITY.  By  Mrs.  J.  R.  Green.  A 

brilliant  account  of  the  genius  and  mission  of  the  Irish 
people.  “An  entrancing  work,  and  I would  advise  everyone 
with  a drop  of  Irish  blood  in  his  veins  or  a vein  of  Irish 
sympathy  in  his  heart  to  read  it.” — New  York  Times 
Review.  (Revised  Edition,  1929.) 

10.  THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT.  By  J.  Ramsay 

Macdonald,  Chairman  of  the  British  Labor  Party. 

xi.  THE  SCIENCE  OF  WEALTH.  By  J.  A.  Hobson, 

author  of  “Problems  of  Poverty.”  A study  of  the  struc- 
ture and  working  of  the  modern  business  world. 

16.  LIBERALISM.  By  Prof.  L.  T.  Hobhouse,  author  of 
“Democracy  and  Reaction.”  A masterly  philosophical  and 
historical  review  of  the  subject. 

28.  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  INDUSTRY.  By  D.  H. 

MacGregor,  Professor  of  Political  Economy,  University 
of  Leeds.  An  outline  of  the  recent  changes  that  have 
given  us  the  present  conditions  of  the  working  classes  and 
the  principles  involved. 

29.  ELEMENTS  OF  ENGLISH  LAV/.  By  W.  M. 
Geldart,  Vinerian  Professor  of  English  Law,  Oxford.  A 
simple  statement  of  the  basic  principles  of  the  English 
legal  system  on  which  that  of  the  United  States  is  based. 

32.  THE  SCHOOL:  AN  INTRODUCTION  TO  THE 
STUDY  OF  EDUCATION.  By  J.  J.  Findlay,  Pro- 
fessor of  Education,  Manchester.  Presents  the  history,  the 
psychological  basis,  and  the  theory  of  the  school  with  a 
rare  power  of  summary  and  suggestion. 

49.  ELEMENTS  OF  POLITICAL  ECONOMY.  By  S. 

J.  Chapman,  Professor  of  Political  Economy  and  Dean 
of  Faculty  of  Commerce  and  Administration,  University 
of  Manchester. 


77.  CO-PARTNERSHIP  AND  PROFIT  SHARING. 
By  Aneurin  Williams,  Chairman,  Executive  Committee, 
International  Co-operative  Alliance,  etc.  Explains  the 
various  types  of  co-partnership  and  profit-sharing,  and 
gives  details  of  the  arrangements  now  in  force  in  many  of 
the  great  industries. 

79.  UNEMPLOYMENT.  By  A.  C.  Pigou,  M.A.,  Pro- 
fessor of  Political  Economy  at  Cambridge.  The  meaning, 
measurement,  distribution  and  effects  of  unemployment, 
its  relation  to  wages,  trade  fluctuations  and  disputes,  and 
some  proposals  of  remedy  or  relief. 

80.  COMMON  SENSE  IN  LAW.  By  Prof.  Paul  Vino- 
gradoff,  D.C.L.,  LL.D.  Social  and  Legal  Rules — Legal 
Rights  and  Duties — Facts  and  Acts  in  Law — Legislation — 
Custom — Judicial  Precedents — Equity — The  Law  of  Na- 
ture. 

91.  THE  NEGRO.  By  W.  E.  Burghardt  DuBois,  author 
of  “Souls  of  Black  Folks,”  etc.  A history  of  the  black 
man  in  Africa,  America  and  elsewhere. 

98.  POLITICAL  THOUGHT:  FROM  HERBERT 

SPENCER  TO  THE  PRESENT  DAY.  By  Ernest 
Barker,  M.A. 

99.  POLITICAL  THOUGHT:  THE  UTILITARIANS. 
FROM  BENTHAM  TO  J.  S.  MILL.  By  William  L. 
P.  Davidson. 

103.  ENGLISH  POLITICAL  THOUGHT.  From  Locke 
to  Bentham.  By  Harold  J.  Laski,  Professor  of  Political 
Science  in  the  London  School  of  Economics. 

113.  ADVERTISING.  By  Sir  Charles  Higham. 

118.  BANKING.  By  Walter  Leaf,  President,  Institute  of 
Bankers ; President,  International  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce. The  elaborate  machinery  of  the  financing  of 
industry. 

123.  COMMUNISM.  By  Harold  J.  Laski,  Professor  of 
Political  Science  at  the  University  of  London.  The  author 
tries  to  state  the  communist  “theses”  in  such  a way  that 
even  its  advocates  will  recognize  that  an  opponent  can 
summarize  them  fairly. 

131.  INDUSTRIAL  PSYCHOLOGY.  By  Charles  S. 
Myers,  Director  of  the  National  Institute  of  Industrial 
Psychology  in  England.  The  only  comprehensive  study 
of  the  human  factor  in  industry. 

133.  THE  GROWTH  OF  INTERNATIONAL 
THOUGHT.  By  F.  Melian  Stawell. 


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